Marilyn Monroe and the Camera

MARILYN MONROE AND THE CAMERA

Even before Norma Jeane Baker changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, she began her passionate and
enduring love affair with the camera. In the summer of 1945, while employed in an aircraft factory,
she was selected to model for photographs to promote the war effort. The rest, as they say,

is history. Her unparalleled relationship with the camera was one in which each partner was equally
enamored with the other, and it lasted nearly twenty years.

The full dimensions of that affair are superbly captured here for the first time. An unsurpassed
photographic chronicle, Marilyn Monroe and the Camera brings together the most beautiful and
unusual Marilyn Monroe photographs available - the early assignments for advertising and pinups,
the film and publicity stills, the classic portraits by such notable photographers as Richard Avedon,
Philippe Halsman, Cecil Beaton, and Bert Stern, the paparazzi shots from the hordes of photo-
graphers who followed her every move. These entrancing images provide a lavish and extraordinary
tribute to the life of America's legendary movie star.

In addition, an interview with Marilyn, conducted in 1 960 by the French writer Georges Belmont
and never before published in English, provides a fascinating view of the real woman behind the
glamorous facade. She describes her lonely childhood, her climb to the top, and the daily workings of
her everyday life in a charming, natural, and unguarded manner. Jane Russell, who costarred with
her in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, enhances the portrait with an affectionate foreword offering a
revealing glimpse of what it was like working on a set with Marilyn. A biography and filmography are
included to make this one of the most complete illustrated books available.

48 color,104 duotone illustrations

Marilyn Monroe at Malibu Beach photographed by Andre de Dienes, 1945.

Marilyn Monroe

and the Camera

With a Foreword by Jane Russell
and an Interview by Georges Belmont

Schirmer Art Books

Schirmer Art Books is an imprint of
Schirmer/Mosel Verlag GmbH, Munich
For trade information please contact:
Schirmer Art Books, 112 Sydney Road, Muswell Hill,
London NIO 2RN, England or
Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, RO. Box 401723,
80717 Munchen, Germany
Fax 089/33 86 95

Copyright 1989 by Schirmer/Mosel GmbH
Interview copyright 1 960 by Georges Belmont
Foreword copyright 1989 by J & J Peoples
This work is protected by copyright.
All manners of reproduction or of communication of this
work or of parts thereof - like in particular
reprinting of text or pictures, recitation, performance,
and demonstration - are only admissible within
the scope of the legal regulations.
This applies as well to all other forms of usage, like for
example translation, withdrawal of diagrams,
cinematographic adaptation or radio or television broadcasting.
Contraventions will be prosecuted.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The Georges Belmont interview was originally published
in French in the magazine Marie Claire, 1960

Conception by Lothar Schirmer Translations by Paul Kremmel
ISBN 3-88814-481-7

A Schirmer/Mosel Production

Acnowledgments

This book is dedicated to the memory of Marilyn Monroe.

Many people and friends have contributed to making this project possible.
I especially wish to thank Maria Honigschmied, Carol Judy Leslie, Susanne Porsche,
Hanna SchyguUa, Cindy Sherman, and Bert Stern, who have all helped in their own
ways to bring the idea behind this book to fulfillment.

For help in the acquisition of the pictures as well as for contributions, hints and helpful
support, I wish to thank Sid Avery, Susann Babst, Katherine Bang, Georges Belmont, Susan
Bernard, Christiane Botzl, Dieter Bold t, Jean-Pierre Boscq, Leo Caloia, Debra Cohen, Simon
Crocker, Lydia Cullen, Nancy D'Antonio, Henri Dauman, Nancy M. Davis, Shirley de
Dienes, Nora and Alex Ester, Jackie Fixot, John Florea, Alexander Haas, Yvonne Halsman,
Francois Hebel, Elisabeth Heidt, Stevie Holland, Ken Johnston, Tom KeUey, Jr., David
Kent, Margot Klingsporn, John Kobal, HUaneh von Kories, Ned Leavitt, Renate Lust,
Anne de Margerie, Michael Ochs, Onur Olgun, Randall Riese, Nicole Rudschinat, Uschi
Sandvoss, Peter Schnug, Ina Seibold, David Seidner, Marcia Terrones, Johanna Thorman,
Peter Tomknson, Annemarie Weber, Ray Whelam, Bob WiUoughby, Sue Wookey.
Finally I should like to warmly thank all the contributing photographers and Miss Jane
Russell for generously contributing a lively foreword to the book.

Munich, Autumn 1989

Lothar Schirmer

Contents

Foreword by Jane Russell
9

The Photographers
11

Marilyn's Interview with Georges Belmont

13

Plates
23

Biography
237

Filmography
243

Selected Bibliography
245

Photography Credits
247

Foreword

The first time I met Marilyn she was dancing with her first husband, Jim Dougherty, a past schoolmate of
mine. He was in uniform and called out to me,"Hey, outlaw ! I want you to see my wife. Norma Jeane." I
looked up from the table and saw a little thing with ash-brown hair and a very sweet smile. We waved hi.
She was curled literally over his arm. A year or so later I was riding with the director Nick Ray on the RKO
lot when we passed a girl wearing very "stressed" blue jeans and a man's shirt tied under her bosom and
showing quite a lot of midriff Nick stopped the car and said,"rdlike you to meet this kid.... She's having a
tough time on her picture with the lady star, who is being very sarcastic to her." As she walked alongside, he
called, "Marilyn, I want you two to meet. Jane, this is Marilyn Monroe." Her hair was blonder now - tousled,
but defmitely blonder.

Nick was very concerned, caring, protective.

I believe that the outstanding quality that made Marilyn different from other so-called sex symbols was her
... vulnerability. Everyone wanted to take care of her, to help. She brought out protective ness in all but the
insensitive, or those who, of course, simply wanted a more sophisticated adult world where everyone was
responsible to himself, a world of caustic humor, a take-as-much-as-you-give world. I was accustomed to
that world, but Marilyn could get terribly hurt. She simply could not understand people being mean. She
was super sensitive - and with good reason, considering her rudderless past and unsure fiiture.
Marilyn had a never-ending thirst for knowledge and self- improvement. She loved poetry and music and
was instinctively drawn to culture, to all the arts, but money and power were not to be gained by coercion;
especially not when applied to Marilyn. She would flit off like a butterfly. I remember her saying, "If they
aren't going to be fair and nice, I can always leave. I can get by on very little. After all, I've done it be-
fore."When we started making Gentlemen Prefer Blondes she was in her very first "star" dressing room,
even though she had already starred in a picture. She was determined that her bosses at Fox were going to
take her seriously. She worked night and day rehearsing the dance numbers, or she'd shoot the film all day
and then go over the script with her coach at night. I'd go home exhausted and ready to relax, but Marilyn
worked on into the night. The next day she would arrive a good ho ur before I did. She was always ready but
could not make herself get out on the set. She puttered, seemingly frozen there. It got a little tense on the
set for a couple of days - you just didn't keep Howard Hawks waiting without getting the steely blue eye !
Whitey, her makeup man, confided to us in my dressing room that he felt that she was afraid to go out on
the set- to face the "tiger," as it were.

So, from then on, I would stop by her dressing room and say, "Come on, Blondel, it's five of Let's go get
'em !" Marilyn would look up and in her little-girl whisper say, "Oh ... O.K.," and we'd trot out together.
We all found her very cooperative, sweet, and humorous, and when the camera rolled she glowed. Physi-
cally, she seemed to have no bones ... she curved every which way ... undulating flesh ... and yet, the inno-
cence of a child was ever present. If you raised your voice at her or were too harsh, she'd cry- you knew
that.Still photographers are the gentlest of creatures. They coax the very best out of their subjects. They
have to, or they'd lose you ... and our girl Marilyn responded to them like a flower opening to the sun - as
you can see in the following pages.

-Jane Russell

The Photographers

Eve Arnold
Richard Avedon
Baron
Cecil Beaton
Bruno Bernard
Leo Caloia
Carone

William Carroll
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Ed Clark
Henri Dauman
Andre de Dienes
Alfred Eisenstaedt
John Engstead
Elliott Erwitt
jack Esten J. R. Eyerman Ed Feingersh
John Florey
Milton H. Greene

Ernst Haas
Philippe Halsman
Bob Henriques

Tom Kelley Gene Komman Madison Lacy Frank Maestro

Leonard McCombe
Richard C. Miller
Earl Moran
Frank Powolny
Bert Reisfeld
Willy Rizzo

Slade
Steinberg
Bert Stern
Weegee
Bob Willoughby

Marilyn 's Interview

with Georges Belmont

Rupert Allan, who took care of Marilyn Monroe 's
publicity, arranged the famous 1960 interview Marilyn
gave Georges Belmont, who was then the editor of the
French magazine Marie Claire. The interview took
place while Let's Make Love was being shot, a film
which of course received eveiybody 's attention in France
because of costar Yves Montand. Georges Belmont soon
managed to gain Marilyn s confidence by promising to
give her a transcript of the interview and to keep strictly
to her actual words when using the text. All those who
heard the interview later realized to their surprise that
they had never heard Marilyn talk about herself so
naturally. Georges Belmont describes the atmosphere: "I
just let her go ahead and speak. The only pressure I
exerted was silence. When she was silent, I didn 't say
anything either, and when she couldn 't stand it any longer
and then continued talking she usually said something
very important, something very moving. " In view of the
photographs in this book, which record Marilyn 's career
in all its glamour and glory virtually from the very first to
the very last photo, we think it necessary and right that
Marilyn herself has a chance to speak in this book.

MM: I'd much rather answer questions. I
simply can't tell the whole story, that's
terrible.... Where to begin? How? There are so
many twists and turns.

GB: Still, it began somewhere. Your childhood?

MM: Well, that ... no one knew anything about
it, except through pure coincidence. For a long
time my past, my life, remained completely
unknown. I never spoke about it. No particular
reason, but simply because I felt it was my
affair and not something for other people. Then
one day a Mr. Lester Cowan wanted to put me
in a film with Groucho Marx, called Love Happy.
At that time I was under contract to Fox and
Columbia, although they wanted to drop me....
He offered me a small part, this Mr. Cowan;

but he was interested in putting me under
contract. So he called. I was still very young,
and he said he wanted to speak to my father
and mother. I told him, "Impossible. ""Why?" he

insisted. So I briefly explained the situation: "I
never lived with them." That was the truth, and
I still don't see what was so unusual about it.
But then he called Louella Parsons and told her
the whole story, and it all appeared in Louella's
column. That's the way it all began. Since then
so many lies have been spread around. . . . My
goodness, why shouldn't I simply tell the truth
now?

GB: What are your earliest childhood memories?

MM: [long silence] My earliest memories? ... It's
the memory of a struggle for survival. I was still
very small - a baby in a little bed, yes, and I
was struggling for life. But I'd rather not talk
about it, if it's all the same to you. It's a cruel
story, and it's no one's business but my own,
as I said.

An3Avay, as far back as I can remember, I can
see myself in a baby carriage, in a long white
dress, on the sidewalk of a house where I lived
with a family that wasn't my own.

It's true that I was illegitimate. But
everything that's been said about my father -
or my fathers - is wrong. My mother's first
husband was named Baker. Her second was
Mortensen. But she'd been divorced from both
of them by the time I was born. Some people
say my father was Norwegian, probably
because of the name Mortensen, and that he
was killed in a motorcycle accident right after
my birth. I don't know if that's true, because
he wasn't related to me. As far as my real
father is concerned, I wish you wouldn't ask ...
but there are a couple of things that could
clear up some of the confusion. When I was
very young, I was always told that my father
was killed in a car crash in New York before I
was born. Strangely enough, on my birth
certificate under father's profession there's the
word "baker," which was the name of my
mother's first husband. When I

was born - illegitimate, as I said - my mother
had to give me a name. She was just trying to
think quickly, I guess, and said "Baker." Pure
coincidence, and

then the official's confusion.... At least, I
think that's the way it was.

Anyway, my name was Norma Jeane Baker. It
was in all my school records. Everything else
that's been said is crazy.

GB: Your mother . I read somewhere that to you she
was just "the woman with the red hair"?

MM: I never lived with my mother. That's the
truth, no matter what some people have said. As
far back as I can remember I always lived with
other people.

My mother was mentally ill. She's dead now.
And both of her parents died in mental
institutions. My mother was also committed.
Sometimes she got out, but she always had to
go back.

Well, you know how it is.... When I was real
little, I'd say to every woman I'd see, "Oh,
there's a mommy !" And if I saw a man, I'd say,
"Oh, there's a daddy." But one morning - I was
only about three -I was taking a bath and I
said, "Mommy" to the woman who was taking
care of me. And she said, "I'm not your
mommy. Call me 'Aunt.'"" But he's my daddy !"
I said and I pointed to her husband. "No," she
said, "we're not your parents. The one who
comes here with the red hair, she's your
mother." It was quite a shock to hear that. But
since she didn't come very much, it's true that
to me she was always "the woman with the red
hair."

Anjrway, I knew that she existed. Then later
on, when I was in an orphanage, I had another
shock. I could read then, and when I saw the
word "orphanage" in gold letters on a black
background, they had to drag me in. I
screamed, "I'm not an orphan! I have a
mother!" But then I thought, "I'd better believe
she's dead." And later people said, "It is better
that you forget about your mother." "But where
is she?" I asked. "Don't think about it," they
said. "She's dead."

And then a little bit later I suddenly heard
from her.... And that's the way it went for
years. I thought she was dead, and I said so,
too. But she was alive. So some people accused
me of making it up that she was dead because
I didn't want to admit where she was. It's crazy.

Anyway, I had - let's see - ten, no, eleven
families.

The first one lived in a small town near Los
Angeles - I was born in Los Angeles. Along with
me they had a little boy they later adopted. I
stayed with them until I was around seven.
They were terribly strict. They didn't mean any
harm - it was their religion. They brought me
up harshly, and correctedme in a way I think

they never should have - with a leather strap.
That finally came out, and so I was taken away
and given to an English couple in Hollywood.
They were actors, or I guess I should say extras,
with a twenty-year-old daughter who was the
spitting image of Madeleine Carroll. Life with
them was pretty casual and tumultuous. That
was quite a change from the first family, where
we weren't allowed to talk about movies and
actors or dance or sing, except maybe for
psalms.

My new "parents" worked hard, when they
worked, and they enjoyed life the rest of the
time. They liked to dance and sing, they drank
and played cards, and they had a lot of
friends. Because of that religious upbringing
I'd had, I was kind of shocked - I thought they
were all going to hell. I spent hours praying for
them.

I remember something . . . after a few months
my mother bought a small house where we
were supposed to live. Not for very long -
maybe three months. Then my mother had to
be committed again. And that was a big
change. After she left, we moved back to
Hollywood.

The English family kept me as long as there
was money - my mother's money from her
savings and from an insurance policy she had.

Through them I learned a lot about the
movies. I wasn't even eight. They used to take
me to one of the big movie theaters in
Hollywood, the Egyptian or Grauman's
Chinese. I used to watch the monkeys in the
cages outside the Egyptian, all alone, and I
tried to fit my feet into the footprints in front of
Grau-man's, and I could never get my feet in
because my shoes were too big.... It's funny to
think that my footprints are there now, and
that other little girls are trying to do the same
thing I did.

They took me there every Saturday and
Sunday. That was a break for them, I think;
they worked very hard and they didn't want to
be bothered with this child around the house
all the time. It was probably better for me, too.

I'd wait till the movie opened and then for
ten cents I'd get in and sit in the front row. I
watched all kinds of movies there - like
Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert; I remember
that so well.

I'd sit there and watch the movie over and
over. I had to be home before it got dark, hut
how was I supposed to know when it was
dark? The folks were good to me: even if I
didn't get anything to eat when I was hungry I
knew they'd save something for me at home.
So I stayed at the movies.

I had favorite stars. Jean Harlow ! I had
platinum blonde hair and people used to call
me "tow-head." I hated that and I dreamed of
having golden hair .. • until I saw her, so
beautiful and with platinum blonde hair like
mine.

And Clark Gable. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I say
it, because in a Freudian sense it's supposed to be
very good ... I used to think of him as my father. I'd
pretend he was my father - I never pretended anyone
was my mother, I don't know why- but I always
pretended he was my father.... Where was I?

GB: The English couple. And when the money ran out.. .

MM: Oh, yes. They put me in an orphanage. No, wait
a minute. When the English couple couldn't keep me
anymore, I went to stay with some people in North
Hollywood, people from New Orleans. I remember
that because they always called it "New Orleeens." I
didn't stay there long, two or three months. I only
remember that he was a cameraman and that one
day he suddenly took me to the orphanage.

I know a lot of people say that the orphanage
wasn't so bad. But I do know that it's changed in the
meantime. Perhaps it's not as gloomy.... But of
course even the most modern orphanage is still an
orphanage - if you know what I mean.

At night, when the others were sleeping, I'd sit up in
the window and cry because I'd look over and see the
RKO studio sign above the roofs in the distance, where
my mother had worked as a cutter. When I

went there to work, years later, in 1951, doing
Clash by Night, I went up to see if I could see the
orphanage. But there were too many tall buildings in
the way.

I once read, I don't know where, that there were
only three or four of us in a room in the orphanage.
That's not true. I slept in a room with twenty-seven
beds, where you could work your way to the "honor"
bed, if you behaved. And then you could work your-
self into the other dormitory, which had only a few
beds. I got to the honor bed once. But one morning I
was late and was putting on my shoes when the
matron said, "Come downstairs!" I tried to tell her I
was tying my shoes, but she said, "Back to the
twenty- seventh bed."

We'd get up at six in the morning, and we did our
work before we went to the public school. We each
had a bed, a chair, and a locker. Everything had to
be very clean, perfect, because of inspection. For a
while I cleaned the dormitory where I slept. Every
day you moved the beds and you swept and then you
dusted. The bathrooms were easier; there was less
dust because of the cement floors. And I worked in
the kitchen, washing dishes. There were a hundred
of us, so I washed a hundred plates and all those
spoons and forks.... We didn't have knives or glasses
and we drank out of mugs. But in the kitchen you
could earn money. We made five cents a month.
They took apenny out for Sunday school, so that you
had one penny left at the end of the month if there
were four Sundays. We'd save that to buy a friend a
little thing for Christmas.

I can't say I was very happy there. I didn't get

along very well with the matrons. But the
superintendent was very nice. I remember one day
she called me into her office and said, "You have
very fine skin, but it's always so shiny. Let me put a
little powder on to see if it helps." I felt honored.
She had a little dog, a Pekinese, who wasn't allowed
to be around the children because he would bite
them. But the dog was very friendly to me and I
really loved dogs.... I was really very honored; I
mean, I was walking on air.

Later, I tried to run away with some of the other
girls. But where to? We couldn't decide, we hadn't
the slightest idea. We only got as far as the bump in
the front lawn when we were caught. The only thing
I said was, "Please don't tell the superintendent! "-
because she'd made me smile and put powder on
my nose and let me pet her dog.

In the orphanage I began to stutter. The day they
brought me there, after they pulled me in, crying
and screaming, suddenly there I was in the large
dining room with a hundred kids sitting there
eating, at five o'clock, and they were all staring at
me. So I stopped crying right away. Maybe that's a
reason along with the rest: my mother and the idea
of being an orphan. Anjway, I stuttered. That was
the first time. Later on, in my teens, when I was at
Van Knight High School, they elected me secretary
of the English class, and every time I had to read
the minutes I'd say, "Minutes of the last m-m-m-
meeting." It was terrible. That went on for two years,
I guess, until I was fifteen.

Sometimes it even happens to me today if I'm very
nervous or excited. Once when I had a small part in
a movie, in a scene where I was supposed to go up
the stairs, I forgot what was happening and the
assistant director came and yelled at me, and I was
so confused that when I got into the scene I
stuttered. Then the director himself came up to me
and said, "You don't stutter." And I said, "That's
what you think." It was painful. And it still is if
I speak very fast or have to make a speech.
Terrible ... [ silence ].

I stayed about a year and a half in the
orphanage. We went to the public school. It's
very had to have children from an institution
like that go to a public school because the
other kids point their fingers: "Oh, they're from
the home, they're from the home." We were all
ashamed to be from the orphans' home.

In school I liked singing and English. I hated
arithmetic. I never had my mind on it, you
know? I was always dreaming in a window.
But I was good at sports.

I was pretty tall. At the orphanage, the first

day,

they didn't believe me when I said I was nine
years old. They thought I was fourteen. I was
almost as tall as I am now - five feet six
inches. But I was very, very thin until I was
eleven. Then things changed.

Suddenly, I wasn't in the orphanage
anymore. I complained so bitterly to my
guardian that she got me out. My guardian -
Grace McKee. She'd been my mother's best
friend. She died eleven years ago. While she
was my legal guardian she worked as a film
editor at Columbia. But she was fired, and she
married a man ten years younger than herself
and he had three children. They were very
poor, so they couldn't care for me. And I think
she felt that her responsibility was to her
husband, naturally, and to his kids.

But she was always wonderful to me.
Without her, who knows where I would have
landed! I could have been put in a state
orphanage and kept there till I was eighteen.
My orphanage was private, and Grace used to
visit me and take me out. Not as often as they
say, but she used to come and take me out
sometimes and I could put on her lipstick. I
was only nine then. She'd take me someplace
to get my hair curled, which was unheard of
because it wasn't allowed and because I had
straight hair. Things like that meant a great
deal to me.

Besides, she was the one who got me out of
that orphanage after I complained so much, as
I said. Of course that meant a new "family." I
remember one where I stayed for just three or
four weeks. I remember them because the
woman delivered things her husband made.
She'd take me along and I'd get so carsick! I
don't know if they were paid for taking me in. I
only know that after them I kept changing
families. Some took me at the end of the school
year and then they had enough after the
vacation. But maybe that's what had been
arranged.

Then Los Angeles County took over my
support. It was awful. I hated it. Even in the
orphanage when I went to school, I tried not to
look like an orphan. But now this woman
would come around and say, "Now let's see, I
think you need some shoes." And she would
write it down: one pair of shoes. Then, "And
does she have a sweater?" Or, "I think the poor
girl needs two dresses, one for school and one
for Sunday."

Well, the sweaters were ugly, they were made
of cotton, and the clothes all looked like they
were made of flour sacks ... terrible. And the
shoes! I'd say,"I don't want them." I always
tried to get clothes from grown-ups that would
be altered for me. And I wore tennis shoes a
lot. You could get them for ninety-eight cents.

I must have looked pretty funny then - I was
so tall, as I said, and I ate everything. I know
because the families I lived with said they'd
never seen a child who ate everything. I'd eat

anything.

I also know that I was very quiet, at least in
front of adults. They used to call me "the
mouse." I didn't say very much except to other
children, and I had a lot of imagination. The
other kids liked to play with me because I
could think of things. I'd say, "Now we're going
to play murder ... or divorce." And they'd say,
"How do you think of things like that?"

I was probably a lot different than the others.
Kids usually refuse to go to bed, but I never
did. Instead, I'd say,"I think 111 go to bed now."
I loved the privacy of my room, my bed. I
especially loved to act out every part of the last
movie I'd seen. You know, standing on my bed,
being even taller, I'd act out all the parts, the
men as well as the women, and I'd work out
what happened before or after. It was
wonderful.... So was acting in school plays.
Once I played the part of a king and once the
part of a prince- that's because I was so tall.

I had a real happy time while I was growing
up when I went to live with a woman I called
"Aunt Anna." She was Grace McKee's mother.
She was a lot older, she was sixty, I guess, or
somewhere around there, but she always
talked about when she was a girl of twenty.
There was real contact between us because she
understood me somehow. She knew what it
was like to be young. And I loved her dearly. I
used to do the dishes in the evening and I'd
always be singing and whistling, and she'd say,
"I never heard a child sing so much." So I did it
during that time. Aunt Anna ... I adored her.

When I was fifteen, turning sixteen, Grace
McKee arranged a marriage for me. There's not
much to say about it. She and her husband
wanted to move to West Virginia. In Los
Angeles the county paid them twenty dollars a
month for me. If I'd gone with them to West
Virginia, they wouldn't have gotten that money,
and since they couldn't support me they had to
work out something. In the state of California a
girl can marry at sixteen. So I had the choice:
go to a home till I was eighteen or get married.
And so I got married.

His name was Dougherty. He was twenty-one
at that time and worked in a factory. Then the
war came and he was going to be drafted, but
he went into the Merchant Marine, and I stayed
with him for a while at Catalina, where he was
a physical training instructor. Around the end
of the war I went to Las Vegas to divorce him. I
was twenty. He's a policeman now.

During the war I worked in a factory. I was in
what they called the "dope room"- I had to
paint "dope" on the fabric used in making
target planes. The work was very boring and
life was pretty awful there. The other girls
would talk about what they'd done the night
before and what they were going to do the next
weekend. I worked near where the paint
sprayers

were - nothing but men. They used to stop
their work to write me notes.

The work was so boring I worked very fast just
to get it over with. They thought I was doing
something wonderful. There was an assembly
for the whole plant and the president of the
plant called my name and gave me a gold
medal and a twenty-five-dollar war bond
for" exemplary willingness," as he put it. The
other girls were furious when I got it and they'd
bump into me and make me spill my can of
dope when I'd go for a refill. Oh my goodness,
they made life miserable.

And then one day the Air Force wanted to
take pictures of our factory. I'd just come back
from my vacation when the office called me in.
"Where have you been?" I nearly died and I
said, "But I had permission for a vacation !"-
which was true. They said, "It's not that. Do
you want to pose for some pictures?"

Well, the photographers came and took the
pictures. They wanted to take more, outside the
factory, but I didn't want to get in trouble -
because I would have missed work - so I said,
"Youll have to get permission." Which they got,
so I worked as a model here and there for
several days, holding things in my hand,
pushing things around, pulling them ...

The pictures were developed at Eastman
Kodak and the people there asked who the
model was and one of the photographers -
David Conover - came back and said to
me, "You should become a model. You'd easily
earn five dollars an hour." Five dollars an hour
! I was earning twenty dollars a week for ten
hours a day and I had to stand all day on a
concrete floor. Reason enough to give it a try.

I started off slowly. The war was over, so I left
the factory and went to an agency. They took
me on, for ads and calenders - not the one that
caused so much trouble; well come to that -
but others, where I was a brunette, then a
redhead, then a blonde. And I really did earn
five dollars an hour!

And I was able to pursue one of my dreams.
From time to time I took drama lessons, when
I had enough money. They were expensive; I
paid ten dollars an hour.

I got to know a lot of people, people different
from those I'd known, both good and bad.
Sometimes when I was waiting for a bus a car
would stop and the man at the wheel would
roll down the window and say, "What are you
doing here? You should be in pictures. "Then
he'd ask me to drive home with him. I'd always
say, "No, thank you. I'd rather take the bus."
But all the same, the idea of the movies kept
going through my mind.

Once, I remember, I did accept an offer from a
man I met like that - an offer to audition in a
moviestudio. He must have been pretty
persuasive. Anyhow, I went. It was on a

Saturday and the place was deserted. I should
have been suspicious, but I was still awfully
naive. Well, the man led me into an office. We
were alone. He held up a script and said there
was a part in it, but he'd have to see. Then he
told me to read the part and to pull up my
dress. It was summer and I was wearing a
bathing suit under my dress. But when he said,
"Higher," I got scared and turned red and
blurted out, "Only if I can keep my hat on!"
That was stupid, of course, but I was really
scared and desperate. I must have looked
ridiculous, standing there holding on to my hat.
Finally he got very mad. I was terribly
frightened and ran away. I told the agency
about this and they called the studio and other
places to try to find this guy, but they didn't.
He must have had a friend or somebody who let
him use his office.

This incident frightened me so much that for
a long time I was determined never to become
an actress, after all. It was a difficult time in my
life. I was living in rooms here and there - not
in hotels, because they cost too much.

And then, as luck would have it, I was on the
covers of five magazines in one month, and Fox
called me up. And so I was waiting on those
hard benches with lots of other people, all ages
and sizes and everything. There was a long wait
until Ben Lyon, the head of casting, came out
of his office. He was hardly out when he
pointed at me and said, "Who's this girl?" I was
wearing a white cotton dress that Aunt Anna-I
was living with her then for a little while - had
washed and ironed for me.

Everything had come up so suddenly that I
couldn't do both - iron the dress and get myself
ready- so she said, "111 do the dress, you just
put on your makeup." After that long wait, I felt
beat, but Lyon was so nice. He said I looked so
fresh and young and I don't know what all. He
even said, "I've only discovered one other
person - and that was Jean Harlow." Imagine
that, my favorite actress!

They made a Technicolor test the next day,
which was unusual because they should have
had the director's permission. And then Fox
put me under contract - a stock contract for a
year.

But nothing came of it, and I never
understood why. They hired a lot of girls and
some boys, but they dropped them without ever
giving them any chances. After they dropped
me, I tried to see Mr. Zanuck, but that was
impossible. They always told me he was in Sun
Valley. I'd come back a week later and they'd
say, "He's in Sun Valley, we're very sorry, he's
very busy." After a while you just give up. And
then, when I was hired back, after Asphalt
Jungle, he said to me, "I understand you used
to be here?" I said,"That's right." Well, things
are a lot different now. And he said I had

a three-dimensional quality, reminiscent of
Harlow, which was interesting since Ben Lyon
had been saying that.

I owe a lot to Ben Lyon. He was the first to believe
in me. He even gave me my name. One day we
were looking for a stage name for me. I couldn't
very well take my father's name, but I wanted at
least some-
thing that was related, so I said, "I want the name
'Monroe,'" which was my mother's maiden name.
And so, since he always said I reminded him of
Jean Harlow and Marilyn Miller, the great
Broadway musical star, he said, "Well, Marilyn
goes better with Monroe, so - Marilyn Monroe."
And now I end up being Mariljai Monroe even on
my marriage license!

But to get back to where I was ... I was pretty
desperate. Fox dropped me and the same thing
happened later at Columbia, even though it was
a little different. They at least put me in a movie
called Ladies of the Chorus. It was really
dreadful. I was supposed to be the daughter of a
burlesque dancer some guy from Boston falls in
love with. It was a terrible story and terribly
badly photographed - everything was awful
about it. So they dropped me. But you learn from
everything.

saw no way out. It was the worst time for me. I
lived in the Hollywood Studio Club and I
couldn't stand it there. It reminded me of the
orphanage.

I was broke and behind in the rent. In the
Studio Club they'd let you get about a week
behind in the rent and then they'd write you,
"You're the only one who doesn't support this
wonderful institution." When you lived there,
you'd get two meals a day-breakfast and dinner-
and you had a roof over your head. Where else
could I have gone? I had no family and I was
really hungry.

Of course, a lot of people said, "Why don't you
go and get a job in a dimestore?" But I don't
know; once I tried to get a job at Thrifty's and
because I didn't have a high school education
they wouldn't hire me. And it was different,
really- being a model, trying to become an
actress, and I should go into a dimestore?

There are a lot of stories told about those
calendar pictures. When the story came out, I'd
already done Asphalt Jungle and was rehired at
Fox with a seven-year contract. I still remember
the publicity department calling me on the set
and asking, "Did you pose for a calendar?" And I
said, "Yes, anything wrong?" Well, they were real
anxious and they said, "Don't say you did, say
you didn't." I said, "But I did, and I signed the
release, so I feel I should say so." They were very
unhappy about that. And then the cameraman
who was working on the film then got hold of one
of the calendars and asked me if I'd sign it, and
so I said yes, I would. I signed it and wrote " To
..."and then his name, and I said, "This isn't my
best angle, you know." And of course the studio

got even madder.

Anyone who knows me knows that I can't lie.
Sometimes I leave things out or I don't
elaborate, to protect myself or other people -
who probably don't even want to be protected -
but I can never tell a lie.

I was very hungry, four weeks behind in my
rent, and needed money desperately. I
remembered that I'd done some beer ads for
Tom Kelley and his wife, Natalie, and that they
had asked me to pose nude. They told me there
was nothing to it and that I would earn a lot -
fifty dollars, the amount I needed. Because they
were both very nice to me I called them up and
asked Tom, "Are you sure they won't recognize
me?" He said, "I promise." Then I said, "Well, if
it's at night and you don't have any helpers ...
you know how to put up the lights ... I don't
want to expose myself to all the people you
have." He said, "All right, just Natalie and me."
So we did it. I felt shy about it, but they were
real delicate, you know, about the whole
situation. They just spread out some red velvet
and had me lie down on it. And it was all very
simple - and drafty! - and I was able to pay the
rent and buy myself something to eat.

People are funny. They ask you a question
and when you're honest, they're shocked.
Someone once asked me, "What do you wear in
bed? Pajama tops? Bottoms? Or a nightgown?"
So I said, "Chanel Number Five." Because it's
the truth. You know, I don't want to say"nude,"
but ... it's the truth.

There came the time when I began to - let's
say, be known, and nobody could imagine what
I did when I wasn't shooting, because they
didn't see me at previews or premieres or
parties. It's simple. I was going to school. I'd
never finished high school, so I started going to
UCLA at night, because during the day I had
small parts in pictures. I took courses in the
history of literature and the history of this
country, and I started to read a lot, stories by
wonderful writers.

It was hard to get to the classes on time
because I worked in the studio till six-thirty.
And since I had to get up early to be ready for
shooting at nine o'clock, I was tired in the
evening and sometimes I would fall asleep in
the classroom. But I forced myself to sit up and
listen. And I was really lucky to sit next to a
Negro boy who was absolutely brilliant. He
worked for the post office - now he's head of
the Los Angeles Post Office.

The professor, Mrs. Seay, didn't know who I
was and found it odd that the boys from other
classes often looked through the window during
our class and whispered to one another. One
day she asked about me and they said, "She's a
movie actress." And she said, "Well, I'm very
surprised. I thought she was a

young girl just out of a convent." That was
one of the nicest compliments I ever got.

But the people I just talked about- you know,
they liked to see me as a starlet: sexy, frivolous,
and dumb.

I have a reputation of always being late. Well,
I don't think I'm late all the time. People just re-
member the times I come too late. Besides, I re-
ally don't think I can go as fast as other people.
They get in their cars, they run into each other,
they never stop. I don't think mankind was in-
tended to be like machines. Besides, it's a great
waste of time - you get more done doing it more
sensibly, more leisurely. If I have to get to the
studio to rush through the hairdo and the
makeup and the clothes, I'm all worn out by
the time I have to do a scene. When we did
Let's Make Love, George Cukor thought it would
be better to let me come in an hour late, so I'd
be fresher at the end of the day. I think actors
in movies work too long hours anyway.

I like to have time for the things I do. I think
that we're rushing too much nowadays. That's
why people are nervous and unhappy- with
their lives and with themselves. How can you
do anything perfect under such conditions?
Perfection takes time.

I'd like very much to be a fine actress, a true
actress. And I'd like to be happy, but who's
happy? I think trying to be happy is almost as
difficult as trying to be a good actress. You have
to work at both of them.

GB: I suppose the portrait of Eleonora Duse on
the wall is therefor some reason.

MM: Yes. I feel a lot for her because of her life
and also because of her work. How shall I put
it? She never settled for less, in either.

Personally, if I can realize certain things in
my work, I come the closest to being happy.
But it only happens in moments. I'm not just
generally happy. If I'm generally anything, I
guess I'm generally miserable. I don't separate
my personal life from my professional one. I
find that in working, the more personally I
work the better I am professionally.

My problem is that I drive myself, but I do
want to be wonderful, you know? I know some
people may laugh about that, but it's true.

Once in New York my lawyer was telling me
about my tax deductions and stuff and having
the patience of an angel with me. I said to him,
"I don't want to know about all this. I only
want to be wonderful." But if you say that sort
of thing to a lawyer, he thinks you're crazy.

There's a book by Rainer Maria Rilke that's
helped me a lot: Letters to a Young Poet. With-
out it I'd probably think I was crazy some-
times. I think that when an artist - forgive me,
but I do think I'm becoming an artist, even
though some people willlaugh; that's why I
apologize - when an artist tries to be true, you

sometimes feel you're on the verge of some
kind of craziness. But it isn't really craziness.
You're just trying to get the truest part of your-
self out, and it's very hard, you know. There
are times when you think, "All I have to be is
true." But sometimes it doesn't come so easily.
And sometimes it's very easy.

I always have this secret feeling that I'm re-
ally a fake or something, a phony. Everyone
feels that way now and then, I guess. My
teacher, Lee Strasberg, at the Actors Studio,
often asks me, "Why do you feel that way
about yourself? You're a human being." I an-
swer, "Yes, I am, but I feel like I have to be
more." "No," he says, "you have to start with
yourself. What are you doing?" I said, "Well, I
have to get into the part." He says, "No, you're
a human being so you start with yourself."
"With me?" I shouted the first time he said
that. "Yes, with you!"

I think Lee probably changed my life more
than any other human being. That's why I love
to go to the Actors Studio whenever I'm in New
York.

My one desire is to do my best, the best that I
can from the moment the camera starts until it
stops. That moment I want to be perfect, as
perfect as I can make it.

When I worked at the factory, I used to go to
the movies on Saturday nights. That was the
only time I could really enjoy myself, really
relax, laugh, be myself. If the movie was bad,
what a disappoiment ! The whole week I
waited to go to the movies and I worked hard
for the money it cost. If I thought that the peo-
ple in the movie didn't do their best or were
sloppy, I was really angry when I left because I
didn't have much money to go on for the next
week. So I always feel that I work for those
people who work hard, who go to the box office
and put down their money and want to be en-
tertained. I always feel I do it for them. I don't
care so much about what the director thinks. I
used to try to explain this to Mr. Zanuck... .

Love and work are the only things that really
happen to us. Everything else doesn't really
matter. I think that one without the other isn't
so good - you need both. In the factory, though
I worked so fast because it was boring, I used
to take pride in doing my work really perfectly,
as perfectly as I could.

And when I dreamed of love, then that was
also something that had to be as perfect as
possible.

When I married Joe DiMaggio in 1954, he
had already retired from baseball, but he was
a wonderful athlete and had a very sensitive
nature in many respects. His family were im-
migrants and he'd had a very difficult time
when he was young. So he understood some-
thing about me, and I understood something
about him, and we based our marriage on this.

But jusf'something" isn't enough. Our
marriage wasn't very happy, and it ended
in nine months.

My feelings are as important to me as my
work.

Probably that's why I'm so impetuous and
exclusive.

I like people, but when it comes to
friends, I only like a few. And when I love,
I'm so exclusive that I really have only one
idea in my mind.

Above all, I want to be treated as a
human being.

When I met Arthur Miller the first time, it
was on a set, and I was crying. I was playing in
a picture called As Young As You Feel, and he
and Elia Kazan came over to me. I was crying
because a friend of mine had died. I was
introduced to Arthur.

That was in 1951. Everything was pretty
bleary for me at that time. Then I didn't see
him for about four years. We would
correspond, and he sent me a list of books to
read. I used to think that maybe he might

see me in a movie - there often used to be
two pictures playing at a time, and I thought I
might be in the other movie and he'd see me.
So I wanted to do my best.

I don't know how to say it, but I was in love
with him from the first moment.

I'll never forget that one day he said I should
act on the stage and how the people standing
around laughed. But he said, "No, I'm very
serious." And the way he said that, I could see
he was a sensitive human being and treated
me as a sensitive person, too. It's difficult to
describe, but it's the most important thing.

Since we've been married we lead - when I'm
not in Hollywood - a quiet and happy life in
New York, and even more so on the weekends
in our country house in Connecticut. My
husband likes to start work very early in the
morning. Usually he gets up at six o'clock.
Then he stops and takes a nap later on in the
day. Our apartment isn't very large, so I had
his study soundproofed. He has to have
complete quiet when he works.

I get up about eight-thirty or so, and
sometimes when I'm waiting for our breakfast
to be ready- we have an excellent cook - I take
my dog, Hugo, for a walk. But when the cook
is out, I get up early and fix Arthur's breakfast
because I think a man should never have to
fix his own meals. I'm very old-fashioned that
way. I also don't think a man should carry a
woman's belongings, like her high-heeled
shoes or her purse or whatever. I might hide
something in his pocket, like a comb, but I
don't think anything should be visible.

After breakfast. 111 take a bath, to make my
days off different from my working days, when
I get up at five or six in the morning and take
a cold shower to wake me up. In New York I

like to soak in the tub, read the New York
Times, and listen to music. Then 111 get
dressed in a skirt and a shirt and flat shoes
and apolo coat and go to the Actors Studio -
on Tuesdays and Fridays at eleven o'clock. On
other days I go to Lee Strasberg's private
classes.

Sometimes I come home for lunch, and I'm
always free just before and during dinner for
my husband. There's always music during
dinner. We both like classical music. Or jazz, if
it's good, but mostly we put it on when we
have a party in the evening, and we dance.

Arthur often goes back to work after his nap,
and I always find things to do. He has two
children from his first marriage, and I try to be
a good stepmother. And there's a lot to do in
the apartment. I like to cook - not in the city,
where it's too busy, but in the country. I can
make bread and noodles - you know, roll them
up and dry them, and prepare a sauce. Those
are my specialties. Sometimes I invent recipes.
I love lots of seasonings. I love garlic, but
sometimes it's too much for other people.

Now and then the actors from the studio will
come over and 111 give them breakfast or tea,
and well study while we eat. So my days are
pretty full. But the evenings are always free for
my husband.

After dinner we often go to the theater or to a
movie, or we have friends in, or we visit friends.
Often we just stay home, listen to music, talk,
read. Or we go for a walk after dinner in
Central Park, sometimes; we love to walk. We
don't have a set way of doing things. There are
times when I would like to be more organized
than I am, to do certain things at certain times.
But my husband says at least it never gets dull.
So it's all right. I'm not bored by things; I'm just
bored by people who are bored.

I like people, but sometimes I wonder how
sociable I am. I can easily be alone and it
doesn't bother me. I don't mind it - it's like a
rest, it kind of refreshes my self. I think there
are two things about human beings - at least, I
think there are about me: they want to be alone
and they also want to be together. I have a gay
side to me and also a sad side. That's a real
problem. I'm very sensitive to that. That's why I
love my work. When I'm happy with it, I feel
more sociable. If not, I like to be alone. And in
my private life, it's the same way.

GB: If I asked you what does it feel like being
Marilyn Monroe, at this stage in your life, what
would you answer?

MM: Well, how does it feel being yourself?

GB: Sometimes I'm content with myself, at
other times I'm dissatisfied.

MM: That's exactly how I feel. And are you
happy?

GB: I think so.

MM: Well, I am too, and since I'm only thirty-four and
have a few years to go yet, I hope to have time to be-
come better and happier, professionally and in my

personal life. That's my one ambition. Maybe 111 need
a long time, because I'm slow. I don't want to say that
it's the best method, but it's the only one I know and
it gives me the feeling that in spite of everything life is
not without hope.

Plates

Marilyn Monroe made her media debut as Norma Jeane Mortensen, chosen and discovered by
David Conover, photographer for the U. S. Army's First Film Unit. Conover was assigned
by his commanding officer, Ronald Reagan (later president of the United States), to photograph beautiful
young women working at jobs vital to the war effort for publicity purposes. On June 26, 1945, in the
Radio Plane Corporation, a company owned by Reagan's friend Reginald Denny that produced
radio-controlled target planes, Conover met Norma Jeane, who was working there for twenty
dollars a week. He recognized her talent, photographed her, and recommended that she become a profes-
sional model. In addition, he introduced her to his photographer friend William Carroll, who took
this picture of Norma Jeane in a red sweater and white shorts with suspenders against the
background of the blue sky and the Pacific Ocean. Carroll took the photo for an advertising brochure
that was meant to demonstrate the quality of a color-processing photo lab.

The man who discovered Norma Jeane's artistic talent was the
Hungarian-born photographer Andre de Dienes. He was looking for a model who would

also be willing to pose nude for him. The girl sent to him by the
Blue Book Modelling Agency was Norma Jeane. De Dienes was immediately taken by her
charm and hired her for $100 a week, plus expenses and props. The first pictures by Andre
de Dienes show Norma Jeane as a little devil in a schoolgirl skirt on the beach, 1945.

A picture full of symbolism, also by Andre de Dienes, on his first extended
photo expedition with Norma Jeane in the summer of 1945. With the words:
"Sit on the highway, it represents life. You have a long way to go,"
Andre de Dienes inspired this pose by Norma Jeane.

The photographer Leo Caloia made this movie still in 1946
at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood. Radio KFI in Los Angeles was hosting a talk show

on photo-artistic techniques. On the stage were seven models, including
Norma Jeane. In the picture, Norma Jeane's extraordinarily photogenic qualities can be
detected. It is evident how effectively light enhances the features of her face.

Andre de Dienes's portrait of Norma Jeane with her hair up and wearing
a mohair jacket recalls the style of family photos in the forties,
and also gives a hint of the feelings the photographer was soon to feel for his model.

Another photographer who could lay claim to having discovered Norma Jeane was the German-born Hollywood photographer Bruno
Bernard, who was famous in the forties and fifties as "Bernard of Hollywood." He met
Norma Jeane one late September day in 1945 on the street and arranged a sitting with her.
This picture from 1946 already shows all the qualities of a classic pinup.
One photo from the series soon appeared on the cover of the magazine J-^ff and helped Norma Jeane to get her first screen test

at 20th Century-Fox, where she was given her first film contract.

A sitting with Bruno Bernard in 1949 at ttie Racquet Club
in Palm Springs had far-reaching consequences for Norma Jeane, who now called herself

Maril5m and who already had a limited 20th Century-Fox film contract.
On this occasion she met Johnny Hyde, who ran the office of the famous William Morris

Agency on the West Coast, and who was to become her friend and mentor.
The picture shows Marilyn in a two-piece bathing suit and sandals with high cork heels,
so typical for the time, on the diving board at the club.

Fashion photograph by John Engstead, about 1947.

Ladies of the Chorus (1948) was the first film in which Marilyn was allowed to talk,
sing, and dance. On this occasion she met Natasha Lytess, who would personally manage her
until the completion of The Seven Year Itch in 1 955. These two publicity shots from
the film show Marilyn as the chorus girl Peggy Martin. Her appearance already hints
at her star quality, and she sang two songs in the film about which Tibor Krekes
commented in Motion Picture Herald: "One of the bright spots is Miss Monroe's singing.
She is pretty and, with her pleasing voice and style, she shows promise."

Publicity shot in 1948 for United Artists, which signed her up for the film Love Happy.

still photo from Love Happy with Groucho Marx,
the first famous film personality with whom Marilyn appeared on the screen. He was looking
for a "young lady who can walk by me in such a manner as to arouse
my elderly libido and cause smoke to issue from my ears." Marilyn got the role.

still photo from Love Happy.
While the detective Grunion (Groucho Marx) is trying to track down
some missing diamonds, he is asked for help by a
voluptuous blonde (Marilyn Monroe) because men keep following her. To which
Groucho replies: "Really? I can't understand why."

Marilyn posing for Life in a costume from Love Happy.
Photograph by J. R. Eyerman, 1948.

During the time of the shooting for Love Happy,
these pictures were taken by the artist and illustrator Earl Moran. Marilyn posed regularly

for him for several years, starting in 1946.
The photos served as the basis for his pinup drawings.

In May 1949 this famous photograph was taken by the Holl3rwood photographer Tom Kelley in his studio. It was to cause a scandal
when it was revealed almost three years later in March 1952, that Marilyn Monroe, the young star of the future, had posed in the nude
for this photograph, which had since been published in a pinup calender. The scandal reached Marilyn while Don 't Bother to Knock was
being shot. When Marilyn stood uo to the situation and admitted to the photograph, the public was immediately on her side. On April 7,
1952, probably as a direct effect of the calendar scandal, she appeared for the first time on the front cover of Life magazine.

In 1949 Marilyn was asked to take part in a promotion tour for Love Happy.
The tour took her through several cities, including New York, where she stayed at the Sherry
Netherlands Hotel. There she arranged a sitting with Andre de Dienes, who was also staying on the
East Coast. That resulted in some of the most beautiful pictures ever taken of Marilyn. These and
the following picture were shot at Tobey Beach, Long Island. The pink and the white swimsuits, as
well as the dotted and colored umbrellas, were purchased for Marilyn by Andre de Dienes.

A beaming Marilyn, sitting cross-legged on Tobey Beach.

When this photo by Philippe Halsman appeared in Life on October 10, 1949, in which Marilyn looks
as if she were a queen surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, it carried the caption: "Seven
Hollywood starlets and an ex-model sit for a tranquil group portrait before turning on their
emotions full blast for an acting test." The picture-story by Philippe Halsman documented the talent
of the up-and-coming actress. In the picture, from left to right are (top row) Lois Maxwell, Suzanne

Dalbert, Ricky Soma; (middle) Laurette Luez, Jane Nigh, Dolores Gardner; (front row) Marilyn
Monroe and Cathy Downs. Philippe Halsman on Marilyn: "She stood out in my memory because she
wasted more time in front of the mirror than the others. She could spend hours adding a little
lipstick, removing a little mascara, and exasperating the people waiting for her."

Publicity still for The Asphalt Jungle, 1950,
probably photographed by Frank Powolny. The Asphalt Jungle, directed by John Huston,
piqued the curiosity of a broad public about Marilyn Monroe.
Her role as the young lover of an aging gangster gave rise to a question that spread like

wildfire: "Who's the blonde?"

Publicity sinot by Franl< Powolny, 1950. in a dress for All About Eve. In this Oscar-winning film,
starring Bette I )avis, Anne Baxter, and George Sanders, Johnny Hyde had managed to get Marilyn a
small role. The critics were very impressed with her performance. Darryl Zanuck, head of
20th Century-Fox, and certainly no great fan of Marilyn's, gave her another contract as a result.

Photograph by Ed Clark for Life. After her small roles in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Etc.
the press begins to celebrate Marilyn's erotic aura.

Publicity still in a costume from The Asphalt Jungle.

Publicity still for the film Hometown Story, 1951.

Besides her films, an almost endless number of pinup photographs
for publicity purposes were taken of Marilyn. They built on her image as a glamour girl.

Marilyn's hairstyle in 1952 is youthful and modern.
She plays with Barbara Stanwyck in Fritz Lang's Clash by Night. Irene Thirer writes in the
New York Post: "That gorgeous example of bathing beauty art,
Marilyn Monroe, is a real acting threat to the season's screen blondes."

In the film We're Not Married Marilyn appears as Annabel Norris,
the winner of a beauty contest for Mrs. Mississippi. When the truth comes out that she is not
legally married to her husband, Jeff (David Wayne),
she then takes part in the Miss Mississippi contest and wins it. The comedy concludes

with a second, this time legal, marriage.

Publicity still from 1952. This shows Marilyn
at the provisional end of the bikini era in a luxurious nightgown.

Publicity still for Don't Bother to Knock, Marilyn's sixteenth film.
In this film she had her first dramatic leading role, that of a psychotic baby-sitter, costarring
with Richard Widmark. The role was particularly difficult for her,
having up to that time played only sexy blondes. The reaction of the critics was mixed.

Marilyn as a vamp. Publicity still by Frank Powolny, 1953.

Mariljm arriving at a film premiere in Hollywood.
Unknown photographer, about 1952.

Color portrait as a vamp in a fluffy fur stole, about 1952.

Publicity shot by Frank Powolny, 1952.

Of all the Marilyn photographs, it was this portrait by Frank Powolny that immortalized her. Andy Warhol
chose this picture as the basis for his famous silk-screen series. One version of this print on a red back-
ground (in a relatively small format, 101 x 101 cm, on canvas) was recently sold at a New York auction

for the astronomical sum of $3.8 million.

Through Philippe Halsman's famous series of 1952, Marilyn Monroe made it to the
cover of Life for the first time. Photographing the twenty-six-year-old Marilyn with half-closed eyes

and slightly parted lips, Halsman made her into a sex goddess. He described the situation:
"Finally I asked her to stand in the corner of the room. I was facing her with my camera, the Life

reporter and assistant at my side. Marilyn was cornered and she flirted with all three of us,
and the photograph eventually made the cover of Life. The cover gave her the status of a star...."
The pictures on the left are contact prints of the series.

Glamour photo in a lace negligee by Bernard of Hollywood, 1952.

Maril3m in a negligee, eyes closed, in her apartment in a suburb of Los Angeles, 1952. Philippe Halsman,
traveling for Life at the time, remarked on the furnishings: "What impressed me in its shabby living
room was the obvious striving for self-improvement of the alleged dumb blonde. I saw a photograph of
Eleonora Duse and a multitude of books which I did not expect there either, such as the works of
Dostoyevski, Freud, The History of Fabian Socialism, etc."

Philippe Halsman continued: "On the floor were two barbells. "Are you using them?' I asked. "Yes,'
she replied. "I'm fighting gravity.'" Photograph by Philippe Halsman, 1952.

Photograph by Philippe Halsman, 1952, on the same occasion.
Halsman: "Later, between two interminable dress changes, she appeared in a semitransparent
negligee and I complimented her for not needing a bra. "But, Philippe,'
she explained, 1 told you that I was fighting gravity.'"

This photo was also taken in 1952, also for Life, by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Marilyn reading James Joyce's Ulysses. Photograph by Eve Arnold, about 1952.

In 1952 bandleader Ray Anthony composed and arranged a song entitled "Marilyn."

For the presentation of the song at a press conference
in Hollywood, Marilyn was flown in by helicopter. Photographs by Bob Willoughby.

Marilyn in an ice-cream parlor in Beverly Hills, 1953. Photograph by Andre de Dianas.

The color portrait is from Bernard of Holljrwood.

Two publicity stills for Niagara, 1953. Rarely in any film has an actress been so beautifully directed and
photographed as Marilyn was by director Henry Hathaway and cameramanJoe MacDonald.

Marilyn Monroe during the shooting of Niagara; on the left is the actor Dale Robertson.

Publicity still for Niagara. The movie, filmed in Technicolor,
received glowing reviews. The New York Times wrote: "Obviously ignoring the idea that
there are seven wonders of the world, 20th Century- Fox has discovered
two more and enhanced them with Technicolor in Niagara, which descended on the Roxy
yesterday. For the producers are making full use of both the grandeur
of the Falls and its adjacent areas as well as the grandeur that is Marilyn Monroe."

Publicity stills for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
the film most people associate Marilyn Monroe with. Although she was paid the
mini-stipend of $1500 a week, whereas costar Jane Russell
received several times that amount, Marilyn remained self-assured: "It is
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and I am the blonde."

Ronald Reagan, who as an army officer unwittingly had advanced Marilyn's career with his commission to David Conover in 1945, meets the star at a

Hollywood banquet. Photograph by Bernard of Hollywood, about 1953.

The photographer John Florea took this picture of Maril3ni Monroe during the
shooting of How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953. It is in the 20th Century-Fox Portrait Gallery.

Publicity still for How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953.
Photograph by Bert Reisfeld.

Maril5m in a particularly seductive pose, taken by John Florea, 1953.

During the shooting of How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953.

At the premiere of How to Marry a Millionaire, with
Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, 1953. The film, which followed immediately
on the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, considerably advanced Maril3ni's fame as a star. In the ads for the
film, Marilynwas listed before Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall.

Publicity still for How to Marry a Millionaire.

In the spring of 1953 Marilyn Monroe received Photoplay magazine's plaque for

"the fastest rising star of 1952 " .
For the award ceremony she borrowed this spectacular gold lame gown that designer
Bill Trevilla had created for Gentlemen Trefer Blondes and that literally became Marilyn's own .
After the ceremony, for whitch she appared two hours later, her hip-swinging departure was so provocative

that pandomonium broke out in the audience.

The bride was on time. On January 14, 1954, at one o'clock,
Marilyn Monroe, twenty-seven years old, married Joe DiMaggio, thirty-nine, in the
San Francisco City Hall. The ceremony, which lasted all of three minutes,
was performed by Municipal Court Judge Charles Peery. The Los Angeles Herald Express
commented sarcastically on the marriage that shook the nation:
"It could only happen here in America, this story-book romance.... Both of them ... had
to fight their way to fame and fortune and to each other.
One in a birthday suit, as a foundling and later as a calendar girl, the other in a ...

baseball suit." Photographs from UPI.

The hone5anoon brought Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn to Japan.
The crowd of fans greeting her on their arrival at the Tokyo international airport was so hug
that the couple had to leave the airplane through the cargo hatch.
At this time Marilyn was the most popular foreign film star in Japan. Then, interrupting
her visit to Japan, Marilyn flew to Korea, where she performed
for the American troops stationed there. For the soldiers she sang songs like
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," "Bye Bye Baby,"
"Somebody Loves Me," and "Do It Again." Within four days, she gave ten shows to more
than a hundred thousand soldiers who came from all parts
of the Korean peninsula. The enthusiasm was mutual. Marilyn said: "This was the best thin
that ever happened to me," and, "I never felt like a star before in my heart."

Snapshot taken during the shooting of River of No Return, 1954.

Publicity still for River of No Return. Under the direction of
Otto Preminger, Marilyn played the bar singer Kay, who starts a new life after many
adventures with the widowed Matt Calder (Robert Mitchum)
and his ten-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig). It was Marilyn's first western.

Publicity stills for River of No Return, in which Marilyn sang
"River of No Return," "I'm Gonna File My Claim," "One Silver Dollar," and "Down in the
Meadow." She herself was very unhappy with the film
and blamed it on 20th Century-Fox: "I think I deserve a better deal than a Z' cowboy movie
in which the acting finishes third to the scenery and cinemascope."

In a limousine during the shooting of River of No Return.
Photograph by John Florea, 1954.

A happy Marilyn Monroe posed for the British photographer Baron in the summer of 1954.

Publicity still from There's No Business Like Show Business,
in homage to the great Irving Berlin. Marilyn accepted the rather weak script on the promise
of being able to star in the filming of the Broadway comedy
The Seven Year Itch. The film turned out to be somewhat of a flop and Marilyn became
determined to accept only artistically demanding material.

Marilyn Monroe "getting good and ready" for her performance in
There's No Business Like Show Business (above). In this film Marilyn sang three songs,
"After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It," "Heat Wave," and "Lazy."

Film still from How to Marry a Millionaire.

Arrival at Idlewild (later John F. Kennedy) Airport, for the shooting of
The Seven Year Itch. The puckered lips were for the photographer Weegee, the craftiest of all
New York's fleet-footed reporters. Photograph by Weegee, 1955.

The shooting of The Seven Year Itch took place in New York.
The location was a brownstone on East Sixty-first Street in Manhattan. During the breaks,
Marilyn laughed and waved to her numerous fans assembled in front of the house.

An ever-increasing number of photographers followed the shooting
of The Seven Year Itch. These two shots of Marilyn Monroe, taken during a break, are by
Elliott Erwitt (right) and Bob Henriques (left), two photographers from the famous

picture agency Magnum.

Surely the most famous scenes from The Seven Year Itch, photographs of which went around the world like
wildfire, show Marilyn on a subway grate with her skirt flying up.
More than four thousand fans, including many reporters, arrived on location
(Lexington Avenue and Fifty-second Street), in the early-morning hours
of September 15, 1954, to witness the spectacle.
Billy Wilder repeated the scene, which gave the film international publicity,
more than fifteen times before he was satisfied.
Bruno Bernard was among the photographers and is responsible for these two extraordinary classics

of all the Marilyn photos.

During the shooting of The Seven Year Itch, rumors about a marriage crisis began to intensify.
On October 6, 1954, Marilyn, accompanied by her lawyer, Jerry Geisler, appeared before the reporters
who had gathered in front of Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio's house in Beverly Hills. Geisler announced
that a suit for divorce had been filed. Marilyn herself was silent, but she sobbed and burst into
tears before they all drove away. Geisler remarked: "She had nothing to say except that her
application for a divorce is based on a matter of conflicting careers." A witness described the scene and
Marilyn's appearance as "worthy of an Oscar." Again, it is Bruno Bernard (right) who captured the
climax of the scene in a memorable photo. Picture above is from UPI. One day later Marilyn was
back on location for The Seven Year Itch, in pink pajamas, shooting one of the funniest scenes
in the movie. This movie was the biggest box-office hit of 1955.

After the divorce Marilyn left Hollywood and moved back to New York accompanied by the photographer Milton H. Greene, who now looked after her personally and professionally.

Commissioned by Greene, the photographer Ed Feingersh
took several pictures of Marilyn in the summer of 1954. This photograph shows a pensive Marilyn on the balcony of her hotel room.

Marilyn in a pose that could illustrate one of her oldest bons mots:
when asked by a journalist what she wore in bed, she answered, "Chanel Number Five."

Photograph by Ed Feingersh, 1955.

On March 9, 1955, Maril3m Monroe took the part of an usherette
at the Astor Theater, New York, for the charity premiere of the film East of Eden, directed by
Elia Kazan for Warner Bros. James Dean, the star of the film,
died six months later.

The proceeds of the benefit went to the Actors Studio.
Marilyn devotedly posed for the crowd of photographers.
Picture left is by Frank Maestro of UPI.

On March 31, 1955, Marilyn rode a Barnum St Bailey elephant,
painted pink, as part of the great Mike Todd Memorial, a benefit performance for victims
of arthritis. She was accompanied by the enthusiastic applause
of the more than 25,000 spectators. Photographs by Carone for Paris Match.

i

On March 31, 1955, Marilyn rode a Barnum 86 Bailey elephant, painted pink, as part of the great Mike Todd Memorial, a benefit performance for victims of arthritis.

She was accompanied by the enthusiastic applause
of the more than 25,000 spectators. Photographs by Carone for Paris Match.

This picture shows a beaming Mariljoi surrounded by circus performers on March 31, 1955, in Madison Square Garden, New York.

Photograph UPI.

The writer Truman Capote dancing with Marilyn Monroe at El Morocco, 1955.
Whereas Capote's expression is somewhat strained, Marilyn's pose appears perfectly relaxed.

Photograph UPI.

One of the many publicity events that Milton H. Greene
arranged for Marilyn during her self-imposed exile from Hollywood was her big appearance
on Edward R. Murrow's television show "Person to Person,"
broadcast in April 1955 to more than fifty million viewers in the United States.

Marilyn getting into a taxi in New York City. No opportunity seems too trivial for the photo-
graphers, and no photographer that Marilyn is not willing to grace with a beaming smile.

Photograph about 1955.

Marilyn's move from Hollywood to New York, the phenomenal success of The Seven Year Itch, and

the founding of her own production firm, the first project of which was to be a film with Laurence
Olivier, all carefully managed by Milton H. Greene, strengthened her position vis-a-vis 20th Century-
Fox to such an extent that she was given a contract granting her extensive rights in selecting
future film projects. In February 1956 shooting began for the 20th Century-Fox production Bus Stop.

Marilyn chose the story herself, as well as the director for it. The publicity stills were taken by
Greene. During the shooting a cover story in Time appeared, which spoke of Marilyn's wish "to be a
real actress" and added: "In Bus Stop she has the chance to show what she can do with the first part
she has ever played that is any deeper than her makeup." For many critics, Marilyn's portrayal of
Cherie in Bus Stop was her most significant accomplishment as an actress.

Publicity stills for Bus Stop by Milton H. Greene.

After the filming of Bus Stop was completed,
and one day after her thirtieth birthday, Marilyn and Milton Greene returned to New York

from the West Coast.

Both the photo at Idlewild Airport and the portrait
in the backseat of her limousine show a confident young woman at the pinnacle of her
artistic, personal, and financial success. Photographs by UPI.

On June 20, 1956, the New York Post ran the story of the imminent marriage between Marilyn and Arthur Miller. The civil ceremony was on
June 29, followed by the wedding according to Jewish ritual on July 1, for which Marilyn had converted to Judaism.
The marriage of America's most famous contemporary playwright to the film star was an eruptive publicity event

and made headlines around the world.
The picture shows Marilyn and Arthur Miller at the turbulent press conference in front of their house
in New York, where they officially announced their wedding plans.

After the marriage ceremony at the court house in White Plains,
New York, Marilyn and Arthur Miller withdraw to Miller's summer house in Roxbury,
Connecticut. Here, too, they pose for the pursuing reporters.

On February 22, 1956, Marilyn sat for the photographer Cecil Beaton.
The sitting, which Beaton had tried to arrange for three months, took place in the New York
Ambassador Hotel. As usual, Marilyn arrived an hour and a quarter late.
This photo, which shows Marilyn lying on a bed with a red carnation, was one of her favorites.

This picture was also taken at the portrait sitting by Cecil Beaton.
Later, in his memoirs, he gave this description of the event: "She romps, she squeals with

delight, she leaps on to the sofa. She puts a flower stem in her mouth,
puffing on a daisy as though it was a cigarette. It is an artless, impromptu, high-spirited,
infectiously gay performance. It will probably end in tears."

In July 1956 Marilyn and Arthur Miller arrived in London for the shooting of The Prince and the Showgirl, a
movie already being advertised. The pictures show Marilyn with Laurence Olivier at their joint press
conference at the London Savoy Hotel on July 16, 1956.
The conference lasted about an hour, in a room crammed with two hundred and fifty journalists.
Marilyn easily managed to beguile the most disdainful reporter.
Winifred Carr of the Daily Telegraph reported: "I've had my eyes well and truly opened about men, after
watching a roomful of the most critical, cynical and sophisticated males in town,

hard-bitten journalists, act like
adolescents. Even those who had come to sneer were hanging on her words like impressionable schoolboys

and laughing at her wit before she had completed a sentence."

stills from The Prince and the Showgirl, taken by Milton H. Greene. Laurence Olivier later
described his work with Marilyn: "It can be no news to anyone to say that she was difficult to
work with. The work frightened her, and although she had undoubted talent, I think she
had a subconscious resistance to the exercise of being an actress. But she was intrigued by the
mystique and happy as a child when being photographed; she managed the business of
stardom with uncanny, clever, apparent ease."

The Queen and the showgirl. At a Royal Command film performance
on October 29, 1956, Marilyn Monroe and other actors were presented to Queen Elizabeth II.

A final press conference at which the Millers, Laurence Olivier, and his wife, Vivien Leigh,

appeared, was held before the Millers left London. At the time of Marilyn's death
years later. Sir Laurence commented: "She was the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation.
Popular opinion and all that goes to promote it is a horrible, unsteady conveyance for life,
and she was exploited beyond anyone's means."

A farewell kiss for English reporters before boarding the plane on November 20, 1956.

Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe leaving Idlewild Airport on their arrival from London. To the
very last moment Marilyn gave her attention to the photographers who had come to greet her.

Publicity stills for The Prince and the Showgirl, taken by Richard Avedon.

For the 1958 Christmas edition of Life, Richard Avedon photographed Marilyn
in the typical poses of five famous stars in motion-picture history: Theda Bara,
Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Lillian Russell, and Jean Harlow. But during this sitting
she also posed for him — unmistakably as the picture opposite shows — as Marilyn Monroe.

One of photographer Philippe Halsman's special gags
was to ask famous personalities to let him take pictures of them jumping in the air. As some
of these photos were about to be published in Life, the editors
wanted Marilyn's jump on the cover.

She was therefore asked, this time officially, to appear
in the studio. She was, of course, as the photographer noted, exactly three days too
late and ten minutes too early, but the sitting produced numerous photos from which the
picture from page 191 appeared on the cover of Life. Photographs are from 1959.

After a break of two years, Marilyn appeared before the camera
as Sugar Kane in the film Some Like It Hot in the summer of 1958. Her partners were

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis; the director, Billy Wilder.
This picture, which was taken during the filming, shows Marilyn in an unusual pose

as a diva with wind-touseled hair.

A still from Some Like It Hot by Richard C. Miller, for whom Marilyn
had already posed for photo ads in 1946. During the filming, which had to be interrupted

several times, Marilyn was so difficult that Miller asked director Billy Wilder
why he put up with Marilyn if she only caused trouble. Wilder's reply: "It's like somebody
who can play one note on an instrument. They play it perfectly,
though they cannot play anything else." Wilder's inexhaustible patience paid off; Some Like

It Hot was his most successful film.

A still from Some Like It Hot.

Publicity stills for Bus Stop by Milton H. Greene.

Henri Dauman photographed a beaming Marilyn Monroe
on her arrival for the premiere of Some Like It Hot in New York on March 29, 1959.

A publicity still with Yves Montand for the film Let's Make Love, 1 960.
Yves Montand was given the part at the last minute after both Gregory Peck and
Rock Hudson had declined. Montand and his wife, Simone Signoret, had already
appeared in plays by Arthur Miller. The love affair that obviously unfolded between the two

leading actors during the course of the filming evoked this reaction
from Simone Signoret: "If Marilyn is in love with my husband, it proves she has good taste."

Publicity stills for Let's Make Love.
The choreographer Jack Cole was responsible for the numerous dance numbers in the film.

This impressive portrait of Marilyn lost in herself was taken on the set for
Let's Make Love. Photograph by Bob Willoughby.

The filming of The Misfits, with a script by Arthur Miller,
began in Nevada in July 1960. Under the direction of John Huston, Marilyn appeared

with Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach. The photo agency
Magnum bought the exclusive rights for still photos and picture stories on the filming.
Every two weeks the agency sent two new photographers to the location to relieve
the previous two. The reason was to ensure sufficient variety in reporting and at the same
time to reduce the photographers' disturbance of the filming as much as possible.

Film still from The Misfits, with Clark Gable

With Nevada's magnificent scenery in the background,
Marilyn in a flesh-colored bikini emerges like Botticelli's Venus from the waters of Pyramid
Lake. A passionate love scene with Clark Gable follows.
Photographs by Eve Arnold.

The great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who with
Inge Morath (later to become Arthur Miller's wife) was sent by Magnum for the first two
weeks of filming for The Misfits, took this picture of Marilyn Monroe.

Ernst Haas, another Magnum photographer, was responsible for this shot,
which best expresses Marilyn's attitude toward The Misfits. Marilyn saw the film as a
men-and-mustang story and felt more and more neglected the longer the filming stretched on.

The star and the floodlights:
Mariljoi, thoughtful and alone, with the set equipment. Photograph by Ernst Haas, 1960.

On March 7, 1961, Marilyn Monroe was accosted by reporters
while leaving Columbia Presb5^erian Medical Center. Although she had spent a month
psychiatric treatment, and in spite of the unusually noisy hounding by the reporters,
Marilyn still found enough time and energy for a smile.

After Marilyn's divorce from Arthur Miller and her release
from the psychiatric clinic, Joe DiMaggio once again looked after her. This snapshot taken
through a windshield by a paparazzo shows an alert and harassed-looking Marilyn.

style l;Style 2;On March 5, 1962, Marilyn received the Golden Globe Award as
"the world film favorite of 1961." At the presentation her companion was Jose Balanos,

a Mexican scriptwriter.

Portrait study by Willy Rizzo for Paris Match, spring 1962.

Publicity still for Something's Got to Give.
Filming was suspended on June 8, 1962, because Marilyn was perennially late and finally

did not show up at all on the set.

On May 19, 1962, Marilyn had left the filming of Something's Got to Give
without permission to appear at the birthday gala for John F. Kennedy
in New York's Madison Square Garden. Here, too, she arrived about
forty minutes late. Peter Lawford's ambiguous introduction was: "Mr. President, the late
Marilyn Monroe ..." John F. Kennedy thanked her for the song by saying,
"I can now retire from politics after having had "Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet,

wholesome way."

On June 23, 1962, a three-day sitting began with Bert Stern
at the Los Angeles'Bel Air Hotel, arranged by Vogue.

Nearly twenty-seven hundred pictures
were taken, from which Vogue editors decided to publish eight.
This was the first time that Vogue reported on Marilyn Monroe.

The agreement between Bert Stern and Marilyn Monroe stipulated
that all pictures be presented to her for her approval. When Stern received the pictures from
her, more than half were crossed through, including this shot.
Bert commented that it was as if she had crossed out herself and not the pictures.

This fashion photograph by Bert Stern for Vogue shows a pensive Marilyn.
In her last interview, which Life published a week before her death, a strong detachment
came through: "Fame to me is only a temporary and partial happiness,
that's not what fulfills me. It warms you a bit, but the warming is temporary. It might be kind

of a relief to be finished. It's sort of like you don't know what kind of yard dash
you're running, and then you're at the finish line and you sort of sigh — you've made it. But
fame will go by — and so long. I've had you, fame. I've always known it was fickle."

August 5, 1962. The sign on the building of the
New York Times at Times Square flashed news of the death of Marilyn Monroe.

Biography

June 1, 1926 Marilyn Monroe is born in Los Angeles General Hos-
pital, the third child of Gladys Pearl Baker, nee Monroe (May 25,
1900-March 11, 1984). She is named "Norma Jeane" (later Marilyn
often left off the e in Jeane.) The father remains unknown. The name
"Edward Mortensen" is given on her birth certificate, since Gladys
was married to a man of this name two years before the birth. Al-
though Marilyn often uses this name for official documents, in nu-
merous private conversations she denies that he was her real father.
In one interview Marilyn mentions that her real father lived in the
same apartment building as her mother did and that he left her du-
ring the pregnancy. This reference led to a man named Stanley Gif-
ford, who worked for Consolidated Film Industries, where Marilyn's
mother was employed as a cutter. Rumors have it that Gifford was
Gladys's lover when her second marriage with Mortenson broke up.
In 1962, the year of her death, Marilyn gives the name of her father
as "unknown" on an official questionnaire.

January 1 935 Norma Jeane's mother goes into a deep depression
and is sent to Los Angeles General Hospital; diagnosed as a paranoid
schizophrenic, she is later committed to Norwalk State Asylum. Gla-
dys's best friend, Grace McKee, is declared Norma Jeane's guardian.
Gladys, who lives alone, on September 9, 1935, takes the young
Norma Jeane to the orphanage of the Los Angeles Orphans Home
Society.

June 26, 1 937 Grace McKee marries "Doc"Goddard and time and
again takes in Norma Jeane. In the following years Norma Jeane lives
with many different foster families (who urgently need the five-dol-
lar-a-week government allowance), spends two years in an orpha-
nage, afterward is again in foster care, and finally lives for four years
alone under an officially appointed guardian.

June 19, 1 942 On a Friday, Norma Jeane Baker marries Jim Dou-
gherty. The marriage was arranged by Grace Goddard because she
and her husband were moving east and didn't want to take Norma
Jeane with them. Jim Dougherty, a neighbor's son, is taken comple-
tely by surprise when he hears that he is to marry the pretty Norma
Jeane. A talented football player, he decided not to go to college and
first worked as an embalmer in a mortuary, later as a mechanic for
Lockheed Aviation. The marriage is scheduled for June, after Norma
Jeane's sixteenth birthday. No honeymoon is possible: Monday mor-
ning Jim returns to work at the airplane factory. In fall 1943 Jim
joins the

Merchant Marine and spends most of his marriage as a soldier
abroad.

June 26, 1 945 David Conover, an army photographer for a military
film unit, takes pictures of Norma Jeane for Yank, an army maga-
zine. His task, which his commanding officer, later U. S. President
Ronald Reagan, had given him, was to take "morally uplifting snaps-
hots of pretty girls" working on jobs vital to the war effort. At this
time Norma Jeane is earning twenty dollars a week at Radio Plane
Corporation for ten hours' work a day. The offer to earn five dollars
an hour as a model comes at just the right time, and she continues
to work as a freelance model. David Conover offers some of her pho-
tos to the model agency Blue Book, 4nd recommends her to them.

August 2, 1 945 The name "Norma Jeane Dougherty" is placed in
the files of the Blue Book Modelling Agency; this marks the begin-
ning of Norma Jeane's phenomenal career as a cover girl and sex
symbol. From now on she can talk only about her meteoric success,
and this estranges her husband, who is at home only for a few weeks
at a time. The well-known photographer Andre de Dienes courts the
lonely young woman and wants to mariy her. Although she poses
for him extensively and goes on a photo excursion with him, which
ends in an affair, she withdraws and turns her attention to other
men. Her work with other famous Hollywood photographers such as
Lazio Willinger, Richard C. Miller, Earl Moran, Bruno Bernard,
George Hurrel, and others begins to flourish. Her pictures soon ap-
pear on the covers of various magazines. This publicity leads to her
first contact with the film world.

July 17 1 946 Marilyn has her first audition with Ben Lyon, her
"discoverer," at 20th Century-Fox.

July 19, 1 946 On the recommendation of Ben Lyon Norma Jeane
is given her first film test at the 20th Century-Fox studios. His en-
counter with her convinces him of her talent and charisma, and he
wants to put her under contract in spite of the reservations of Darryl
Zanuck, head of 20th Centuty-Fox.

July 29, 1 946 For the first time Norma Jeane Dougherty is mentio-
ned in a Los Angeles Times gossip column.

August 24, 1 946 Norma Jeane obtains her first studio contract
with 20th Century-Fox. Ben Lyon finds the name "Norma Jeane
Dougherty" completely inappropriate and calls her at

first "Carole Lind" and then "Marilyn Miller." Finally, Norma Jeane
recalls the name of her grandmother, and she and Lyon agree to the
pleasing alliteration of "Marilyn Monroe." Years later, having achie-
ved stardom, Marilyn sends Lyon a photo portrait with the dedication
"You found me, named me and believed in me when no one else did.
My love and thanks forever."

September 13, 1946 Marilyn divorces James Dougherty.

Early 1947 At twenty-one, Marilyn is an unnamed extra in the film
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! Her appearance ends up largely in the
cutting-room wastebasket, but one scrap of dialogue survives, the
word "hello," and a brief long shot where she can be seen paddling
around in a canoe. Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! is the first film she
appears in; it is shown in 1948, after the release of her second film.
Dangerous Years, which premieres on December 8, 1947. In Dan-
gerous Years she plays the minor role of Eve, a waitress in a bar.
On her first year Marilyn remarks: "Most of what 1 did while 1 was at
Fox that first time was pose for stills. Publicity made up a story about
how I was a baby-sitter for a casting director.... You'd think they
would have had me at least [be] a daddy-sitter." (M.M. to Pete Martin,
Will Acting Spoil Marilyn Monroe, Doubleday, 1956)

August 25, 1 947 After Marilyn has been with 20th Century- Fox for
a year, Darryl Zanuck decides not to extend the contract of the
blonde femme fatale, owing to "unsatisfactory dramatic perfor-
mance." Marilyn and her mentor, Ben Lyon, are speechless.

March 9, 1 948 Marilyn signs a half-year contract with Columbia
Studios, which guarantees her $125 a week. Natasha Lytess, head
drama coach at Columbia, gives her drama lessons for several
months. The first movie in which M.M. is allowed to talk, sing, and
dance is a low-budget production entitled Ladies of the Chorus. A
passionate affair begins with Fred Karger, the studio's vocal coach.
"A new life began for me.... I had always thought of myself as so-
meone unloved. Now 1 know there had been something worse than
that in my life. It had been my own unloving heart.... When he said
1 love you' to me, it was better than a thousand critics calling me a
great star." (M.M. to Ben Hecht) When her contract with Columbia
expires in September 1948, it too is not extended.

Early 1 949 Marilyn is unemployed and penniless again, and about
to leave Fred Karger, the first man she really gave her heart to, as she
often confesses. But that spring Groucho Marx gets her a small role
in the Mary Pickford production of Love Happy. She was chosen
from three actresses auditioning for a small gag in the film. Grou-
cho, a private detective, is approached by her, a young, curvaceous
beauty: Marilyn: "Mr. Grunion. 1 want you to help me ... Some men
are following me." Groucho: "Really? 1 can't understand why." In the
credits to the movie, which premiered in 1950, her name is listed se-
parately: "Introducing Marilyn Monroe."

May 27 1 949 In Tom Kelley's studio, the first nude photographs
are taken. Their publication in a calendar leads to a "scandal" three
years later.

July 24, 1 949 Marilyn has her first interview with the gossip
columnist Earl Wilson in connection with a promotion tour for
Love Happy in the New York Sherry Netherland Hotel.

Wilson writes: "Over the years Hollywood has given us its "It Girl,'
its "Oomph Girl,' its "Sweater Girl,' and even The Body.' Now we get
the "Mmmmmmm Girl."' During this tour the famous photo series
by Andre de Dienes on Tobey Beach, Long Island, is taken.

August 15, 1949 The filming begins forA Ticket to Tomahawk, a
trivial, not-so-entertaining western of limited dramatic quality in
which Marilyn plays the role of Clara, a chorus girl. At the Racquet
Club, an exclusive Palm Springs Tennis Club, Marilyn Monroe meets
Johnny Hyde, a representative of the William Morris Agency, one of
HoUjrwood's most influential theatrical agencies. Hyde is one of Ame-
rica's most successful talent scouts, fifty-three years old - thirty
years older than Marilyn - very rich and with a heart condition. He
promises to make Marilyn a star. During the day he extols Marilyn's
talent; in the evenings he accompanies her to the houses of the fa-
mous, rich, and powerful. Marilyn turns down his proposal of mar-
riage.

January 5, 1 950 Shooting of The Fireball, in which she plays
Polly, a roller-skating groupie, begins.

June 1 950 The premiere of John Kuston'sAsphalt Jungle takes
place. This film is the story of an aging gangster (Sam Jaffe) who,
just released from prison, looks for a new gang for his last coup. Ma-
rilyn plays Angela Phinlay, the blonde, youthful lover of the gangster.
The Asphalt Jungle is her first demanding script. In the same year
Marilyn has a memorable part in the Academy Award- winning All
About Eve. The public finally takes notice of Marilyn Monroe and
admires her, and Hollywood producers present her with better of-
fers.

December 10, 1 950 Johnny Hyde negotiates a seven-year contract
for Marilyn with 20th Century-Fox.

December 18, 1950 Johnny Hyde dies. Shortly thereafter, while
filming As Young As You Feel at 20th Century-Fox, Marilyn meets
two more influential men: Elia Kazan, one of the most distinguished
stage and film directors; and Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright.

April 18, 1951 Shooting begins for Love Nest, the second produc-
tion under Marilyn's new contract and one of the numerous films
that called for a well-proportioned blonde. In this fairly mediocre
movie, Marilyn plays Roberta Stevens, an ex-WAC. The premiere is
held on October 10, 1951.

September 8, 1 951 The first full-page feature about Marilyn ap-
pears in Collier's. Further cover stories in Look and Life follow.

March 13, 1952 The story of the nude calendar photos surfaces,
and the public recognizes the connection between the new film star
and the pinups that hung in many garages and barbershops. Mari-
lyn, after many tears, refuses to deny that she made the photos. She
pleads that they were taken when she was penniless so that she
could pay for food and rent: "I was hungry," she tells reporters. Her
touching story quickly turns the scandal into a gigantic publicity
success. Later, in Decem-

ber 1953, a picture from the series appears on the cover of the
newly founded Playboy.

June 1, 1952 On Marilyn's twenty-sixth birthday, she is told that
she has been given the coveted role of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Pre-
fer Blondes, one of the most important musicals of the fifties.

September 2, 1 952 M.M. is the "Grand Marshal" for the Miss
America contest.

October 4, 1 952 An alleged, but somewhat uncertain, marriage to
Robert Slatzer, an Ohio journalist, takes place in Tijuana, Mexico,
marriage and divorce haven. According to rumors, the marriage lasts
for three days. 20th Century- Fox insists on an immediate annul-
ment. In the closing weeks of 1952 filming begins on Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes. The movie is a smashing success for Marilyn in
1953 - the same year in which she achieves stardom in Niagara.

June 26, 1953 M.M. and Jane Russell (costar of Gentlemen Pre-
fer Blondes) kneel on the sidewalk in front of Grauman's Chinese
Theater, Hollywood's famous movie palace, in order to place for all
time their handprints and their footprints in cement. Finally, they
carve their names next to the imprints to the cheers of the surroun-
ding crowd. Marilyn stresses the preeminence of her role in the
movie: "It is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and I am the blonde." In
the movie she sings the classic "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."

September 13, 1 953 Marilyn makes her first TV appearance, on
the Jack Benny show.

October 1953 Marilyn meets photographer Milton H. Greene at a
party given for Gene Kelly. In the coming years Greene helps free her
from the strictures of her contract with 20th Century- Fox. She signs
a recording contract with RCA.

November 4, 1 953 Premiere of How to Marry a Millionaire.
Three women - M.M. as Pola Debevoise, Lauren Bacall, and Betty
Grable - rent an exclusive apartment in New York and try to land a
trio of millionaires. This successful comedy enhances Mariljm's fame
as a star and ranks with the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

December 15, 1 953 Shooting for The Girl in Pink Tights begins,
after Darryl Zanuck refuses her the leading role in The Egyptian.
Frank Sinatra takes on the leading male role. Although Marilyn is
the greater box-office attraction, Sinatra receives $5,000 a week to
Marilyn's $1,500, a result of her seven-year contract. M.M. protests
by not showing up and is suspended by 20th Century-Fox on Ja-
nuary 4, 1954.

January 14, 1 954 Marilyn Monroe marries former baseball cham-
pion Joe DiMaggio,a "living legend" of American sports, in San Fran-
cisco. He has courted her assiduously for a year. The marriage
receives worldwide publicity, and Marilyn is able to get 20th Cen-
tury-Fox to drop the disciplinary measures resulting from her breach
of contract. The newlyweds' honeymoon begins in Japan.

February 16, 1 954 Marilyn interrupts her honeymoon and

flies to Seoul to entertain the troops stationed in Korea. She later
calls her appearance before the soldiers one of the high points in her

life. "I never felt like a star before in my heart. It was so wonderful
to look down and see a fellow smiling at me," Marilyn admitted to
her friend Amy Greene.

August 10, 1 954 Filming for The Seven Year Itch, directed by
Billy Wilder, begins. Marilyn plays the luscious blonde who lives in
the apartment over that belonging to the conventional but suscepti-
ble costar Tom Ewell. When his wife goes on vacation, he is inspired
to bold, erotic fantasies.

September 15, 1 954 The famous scene on the subway grate from
The Seven Year Itch is filmed in New York. Tipped off by the press
through the studio's publicity department, thousands gather behind
wooden police barriers to see the lovely young woman's snow-white
skirt billow up to her shoulders - to the amusement of Marilyn and
Tom Ewell. Less amused is Joe DiMaggio, who watches the scene in
the crowd and thereafter engages in one of his and Marilyn's worst
marital fights.

October 5, 1 954 Marilyn and Joe separate officially. "Our marriage
wasn't a happy one," she said later.

October 27, 1 954 Marilyn files for divorce in Santa Monica.

November 6, 1 954 Holl3rwood's film society celebrates Marilyn
Monroe on the occasion of the completion of The Seven Year Itch
at Romanoffs Beverly Hills restaurant. The signatures in her honor
on the huge "Marilyn" souvenir portrait include those of Humphrey
Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert, William Holden, James
Stewart, Susan Ha3rward, Gary Cooper, and Doris Day. Hollywood's
film moguls, including Sam Goldwyn, Jack Warner, and Darryl Za-
nuck, pose for the cameras. For the first time Marilyn meets her chil-
dhood idol, Clark Gable.

Nevertheless, the celebrated star decides to turn her back on Holly-
wood. Shortly before Christmas 1954 she puts on a dark wig and
sunglasses and, with a ticket in her pocket issued to the name of
"Zelda Zonk," flies from Los Angeles to-Connecticut, where she re-
treats to the house of photographer Milton H. Greene. Her self-impo-
sed exile lasts a year.

December 31, 1954 With Milton H. Greene she founds Marilyn
Monroe Productions, Inc. Her enthusiastic remarks about her com-
panion: "I feel deeply about him. I'm sincere about his genius. He's
a genius." As her mentor, partner, and impresario, he ensures that
Marilyn's high cost of living of about $50,000 a year can be financed.

January 15, 1 955 Marilyn's absence from Holl3Wood and her pri-
vate initiative with Milton Greene lead 20th Century-Fox to an-
nounce another suspension. During a press conference in New York
arranged by Milton H. Greene, Marilyn reveals her new dramatic am-
bitions, including the desire to play Grushenka in The Brothers
Karamazov, a wish the press comments on sarcastically. 20th Cen-
tury-Fox counters by pointing out that M.M. is bound to the studio
until 1958, and that they see no necessity to honor her wishes for fu-
ture roles. "In Hollywood last week Marilyn got a brusque reminder
that she is firmly under contract to the studio until 1958. Fox issued
a paper: "20th Century-Fox is very satisfied with both the

artistic and financial results fi-om the pictures in which Miss Monroe
has appeared.... 20th Century- Fox has no intention of granting Miss
Monroe's request that she play in Brothers Karamazov. "' (Time, Ja-
nuary 24, 1955)

March 31,1 955 Marilyn Monroe rides on a pink-painted elephant in
Madison Square Garden. The occasion is the benefit for the Mike
Todd Foundation for victims of arthritis and rheumatism. Twenty-
five thousand spectators enthusiastically applaud her appearance.

April 8, 1955 On Good Friday at breakfast time, Milton Greene and
Marilyn's house in Connecticut is beseiged by several TV crews.
M.M. appears on Edward R. Murrow's famous interview program
"Person to Person, "which is seen by more than fifty million viewers.

Spring 1 955 Marilyn makes concerted efforts to fill in the gaps in her
education, at least in the professional realm. She acquired Max
Reinhardt's private library at an auction in December 1952 (and sold
it shortly thereafter at cost to Reinhardt's son Gottfried). For seven
years she has been taking drama lessons from Natasha Lytess and
Michael Chekhov. Now she decides to switch to Lee Strasberg, brea-
king with Lytess. Strasberg's New York theater workshop, the Actors
Studio, is of great benefit to Marilyn. In the 1950s, actors such as
Marlon Brando, James Dean, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Paul New-
man, Montgomery Clift, Steve McQueen, and Tom Ewell are among
the most prominent to attend the studio, which has become one of
the most influential setups of its kind.

At this time, Marilyn's psychiatric treatment, which began around
1954, intensifies. She often goes five times a week to her female psy-
chiatrist. Dr. Hohenberg, on the New York East Side.

June 1, 1955 On Marilyn Monroe's twenty-ninth birthday. The Seven
Year Itch premieres.

November 1, 1955 Marilyn's divorce from Joe DiMaggio is granted.

December 31, 1955 On the basis of the phenomenal box-office suc-
cess of The Seven Year Itch, Darryl Zanuck concludes a new contract
with Marilyn, the best of her career. A clause very important for Ma-
rilyn gives her the right to reject any film that in her opinion is not
"first class"; the same applies to directors and cameramen. This
contract change, negotiated by Marilyn and Milton Greene, guaran-
tees her a high level of artistic freedom, the prerequisite for her long-
dreamed-of career as a serious actress. In addition, the clause gives
her greater scheduling leeway to allow her to pursue projects in her
own firm.

January 16, 1956 A press bulletin confirms that both parties have
reached agreement on contested points in previous contracts. "Last
week as the battle ended, the clear winner was Marilyn Monroe Pro-
ductions, Inc." (Time) In 1970 Zanuck admits that he had underes-
timated Marilyn:

"One day, a great friend of mine, Joseph M. Schenck, brought over
to my home in Palm Springs this very beautiful girl who was also on
the plump side. I didn't jump up and say,~Oh, this is a great star,' or
anything like that. Later on, Joe said, Tf you can

work her in some role or something, some, you know, supporting
role, do so.' I did, but I didn't think that I had found any gold mine.
John Huston gave her a hell of a good role in The Asphalt Jungle'
(1950). Jesus, she was good in it. I thought, it must have been the

magic of Huston, because I didn't think she had all that in her. But
then I put her in "All About Eve' (1950), and she was an overnight
sensation." (loo/c magazine, Novembers, 1970)

February i 956 Marilyn's performance of a scene from Anna Christie
at Strasberg's Actors Studio in New York wins the applause of a se-
lect audience.

February 9, 1 956 Marilyn holds a press conference with Sir Laurence
Olivier at the New York Plaza Hotel to announce her next project:
the filming of Terrence Rattigan's play The Sleeping Prince.

February 25, 1956 After a year of self-imposed exile, Marilyn re-
turns to Holl}rwood.

May 3, 1956 The shooting for Bus Stop begins. This is the first pro-
ject largely chosen by Marilyn herself, including the director, Joshua
Logan, and the material, based on a successful Broadway comedy.
Marilyn's friend and partner Milton Greene is responsible for stills
and makeup, and she selects her own costumes. In spite of these
concessions and her successes, her New York psychiatrist has to be
flown in to stabilize her emotionally.

May 14, 2 956 The cover story for Time is about Marilyn.

June 2, 1956 After the filming of Bus Stop is concluded, M.M. re-
turns to New York.

June 29, 1 956 Marilyn weds Arthur Miller in a civil ceremony.

July 1 , 1 956 A marriage to Arthur Miller according to Jewish rites is
held; Marilyn had converted to Judaism shortly before. At a press
conference she reports: "We're so congenial. This is the first time I've
been really in love. Arthur is a serious man, but he has a wonderful
sense of humor. We laugh and joke a lot. I'm mad about him."

July 14, 1956 The newlyweds arrive in London and hold a press
conference with Sir Laurence Olivier to announce the newest project,
the first of the Marilyn Monroe Productions, Inc.: The Prince and the
Showgirl.

A Marilyn craze has been sweeping England for weeks. But now the
newspapers and magazines outdo each other with headlines and
exaggerated inanities: "She walks. She talks. She really is as luscious
as strawberries and cream." (London Evening News) The reports on
her arrival push the speech of Prime Minister Anthony Eden - a war-
ning about the serious economic crisis- onto page 2. Marilyn's de-
pendency on medication becomes more acute during the difficult and
emotionally trying filming, and her New York psychiatrist has to be
flown in over the Atlantic after Paula Strasberg, Marilyn's constant
companion, returns to New York earlier than planned.

October 29, 1 956 Marilyn is presented to Queen Elizabeth II at a
Royal Command Film Performance.

November 20, 1 956 Marilyn and Arthur Miller leave England after
finishing shooting for The Prince and the Showgirl and finally set
off to Jamaica on their belated honeymoon.

December 18, 1 956 Marilyn is on a radio show in the Waldorf-
Astoria.

Spring 1957 Her business partnership, Marilyn Monroe Produc-
tions, Inc., as well as her friendship with Milton H. Greene, falls
apart. Greene's comment on the failure: "I thought I'd seen them
all; being in the business I'd seen so many models and actresses.
But I'd never seen anyone with that tone of voice, that kindness,
that real softness. If she saw a dead dog in the road, she'd cry. She
was so supersensitive you had to watch your tone all the time.
Later I was to find out that she was schizoid - that she could be
absolutely brilliant or absolutely kind, then, the total opposite."
Marilyn's detached reply: "My company was not set up merely to par-
cel out 49.4 % of all my earnings to Mr. Greene for seven years!"
(Time, April 29, 1957, p. 58)

June 13, 1957 The premiere of The Prince and the Showgirl is
held at Radio City Music Hall, New York.

August 1, 1957 Marilyn suffers a miscarriage after a two-month
pregnancy. The loss of the child evokes a new emotional crisis, and
she makes her first suicide attempt.

August 4, 1 958 Shooting begins for Some Like It Hot. Marilyn's
contradictory behavior, exaggerated and uncooperative, surpasses
her previous misconduct on sets. Scheduled to shoot at midday, she
often doesn't appear until 6.00 p.m., if at all. She objects to the movie
being filmed in black and white, instead of in color. She blames the
studio for having replaced Frank Sinatra with Jack Lemmon. She
doesn't like working with Tony Curtis. She has problems with the
director. Billy Wilder, who managed to survive The Seven Year Itch
four years earlier, goes through hell for the next four months - for a
film that becomes the most successful comedy ever on screen.

September 19, 1 958 Marilyn is admitted to Cedars of Lebanon
Hospital for "nervous exhaustion."

November 6, 1 958 Filming of Some Like It Hot is completed.

December 1 7 1958 Marilyn has a second miscarriage.

March 29, 1959 Some Like It Hot premieres.

Early 1 960 Filming of Let's Make Love, a comedy directed by
George Cukor, begins. The leading male role is played by Yves Mon-
tand, after refusals by Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston,
and Rock Hudson. A love affair with Yves Montand ends in Novem-
ber.

March 8, 1 960 Marilyn Monroe receives the Golden Globe Award
as "Best Actress in a Comedy" for her role in Some Like It Hot.

July 18, 1 960 Filming of The Misfits begins in Nevada. Arthur Mil-
ler wrote the script for Marilyn; John Huston is the director. With
Marilyn in the leading roles are her idol, Clark Gable, and
Montgomery Clift. During the shooting of the film Marilyn makes a
pact with her friend and press agent Rupert Allan: if one of them is

thinking of suicide, that person agrees to call the other to talk him
or her out of it. In case the other person is not in and a message has
to be left, they decide on the password "Truckee River." Marilyn
makes a similar suicide pact with Lee Strasberg.

August 26, 1 960 Marilyn Monroe suffers a nervous breakdown
during the shooting for The Misfits and is flown to West-side Hos-
pital, Los Angeles.

September 5, 1 960 She returns to location.
November 4, 1 960 The Misfits is completed.

November 11, 1960 A press bulletin announces that the mar-
riage to Arthur Miller is to be dissolved.

November 16, 1960 Death of Clark Gable. During the Christmas
holidays, the thirty-four-year-old Marilyn alarms her lawyer by as-
king him to draw up a new will.

January 20, 1 961 The divorce from Arthur Miller is granted in
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

January 31, 1961 Premiere of The Misfits. Many critics are less
than generous in their reaction to Marilyn's performance as Roslyn
Tabor, an unhappy divorcee. Details other mental problems, her de-
pendence on medication and alcohol reach the public.

February 7 1961 Admitted to Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic of
New York Hospital. She calls Joe DiMaggio in Florida who imme-
diately comes to New York to get her out. On the evening of the
fourth day she is smuggled out of the clinic through the cellar.

February 1 1, 1961 She spends the next three weeks in the psy-
chiatric division of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

March 7 1961 As Marilyn leaves the clinic, she is beseiged by a
horde of reporters and camera teams to an extent unparalleled in all
the years of reporting on her private life. Marilyn has to be escorted
through a cordon formed by sixteen policemen and hospital security
personnel to her waiting limousine. Joe DiMaggio is Marilyn's chief
support at this time. She flies to Florida where Joe is coaching his
former team, the New York Yankees. This year Marilyn is not able to
work; two more hospital stays follow.

November 19, 1961 At Peter Lawford's beach house in Santa Mo-
nica she meets President Kennedy. Rumors spread that she has
sexual relationships with him and his brother Robert.

Early February 1 962 Marilyn finds a house in the exclusive sec-
tion of Brentwood (California). The secluded house on a dead-end
street is not far from doctors and friends, like Dr. Greenson and
Peter Lawford. Marilyn continues to see the Kennedy brothers in
Lawford's villa.

February 1, 1 962 Dinner in honor of Robert F. Kennedy.

March 1 962 Marilyn Monroe receives the Golden Globe Award as
the World's Film Favorite.

April 23, 1962 Filming for Something's Got to Give begins. Henry
Weinstein, producer of the film and friend of the Greenson family, is
horrified to see the poor emotional and physical state that his super-
star from Hollywood is in.

May 19, 1 962 At John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration in Madi-
son Square Garden, fifteen thousand Democrats cheer their presi-
dent. Jack Benny, Henry Fonda, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and
Maria Callas make appearances. Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy
Birthday" and "Thanks for the Memory":

"Thanks, Mr. President,

For all the things you've done. The

battles that you've won.

The way you deal with U. S. Steel, And

our problems by the ton. We thank you -

so much."

May 28, 1 962 Shooting of the famous swimming pool scene for the
film Something's Got to Give. The first nude photos since her fa-
mous calendar pinups are taken. The news that Marilyn has posed
in the nude immediately hits the press with welcome publicity for
the studio and approving comments on Marilyn's well-preserved fi-
gure.

June 1, 1 962 Marilyn's birthday is her last full working day at
20th Century-Fox and her last public appearance.

June 8, 1962 The production of Something's Got to Give is in-
terrupted because Marilyn continually arrives too late or not at all.
She justifies her absence by referring to the unfinished script and
the viral infections she has contracted. Marilyn is fired by Fox. In an
ad in Variety the studio employees and other actors in the film sar-
castically thank Marilyn for the loss of their jobs due to her arbitrary
behavior. The studio sues Marilyn for half a million dollars in da-
mages. When Dean Martin refuses to work with another actress, he
too is sued. In a telegram Marilyn expresses her regrets to all concer-
ned. The studio soon realizes that Marilyn cannot be replaced, with-
draws its charges, and begins to negotiate with her. The film is

planned to be finished by the end of the year.

June 23, 1 962 The three-day photo session with Bert Stern, com-
missioned by Vogue, begins. Of the twenty-seven hundred photo-
graphs that are made, only eight appear in Vogue. In 1982 all the
remaining pictures are published in Germany in book form (Bert
Stern: Marilyn Monroe. The Complete Last Sitting).

June 28, 1962 Marilyn meets with leading representatives of 20th
Century- Fox to discuss her future work in Something's Got to
Give.

August 3, 1 962 Last Life cover story before Marilyn's death.

August 4, 1962 Marilyn Monroe's last day. In the afternoon U. S.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy visits her, together with a doctor
who gives her a tranquilizer to calm her down. The list of telephone
calls for this day disappears. Peter Lawford states that he talked
with her a few hours before her death.

August 5, 1 962 On the morning of this day, Dr. Greenson finds
Marilyn dead in her house. The Associated Press reports the next
day: "HOLLYWOOD - Blonde and beautiful Marilyn Monroe, a gla-
morous symbol of the gay, exciting life of Hollywood, died tragically
Sunday. Her body was found nude in bed, a probable suicide.... The
long- troubled star clutched a telephone in one hand. An empty bot-
tle with sleeping pills was nearby." Joe DiMaggio, Mrs. Bernice Mi-
racle, and Inez Melson arrange for a private funeral.

August 8, 1 962 Marilyn is buried in a ciypt in Westwood Memorial
Park Chapel. On the ribbon of an anonymously donated wreath is
the text of a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, including the
lines:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. ... I
love thee with the breath.

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I
shall but love thee better after death.

August 18, 1 962 Press bulletin of the "suicide investigation team"
confirms that Marilyn died of an overdose of barbiturates. The inves-
tigation into the cause of death is halted. The press refers to myste-
rious pressure on the investigating authorities to end their inquiries.

August 28, 1 962 The death certificate is issued.

Filmography

1 SCUDDA HOO! SCUDDA HAY!

20th Centuiy-Fox, 1948. Produced by Walter Mo-
rosco; directed by E Hugh Herbert. Cast: June Haver,
Lon McCallister. A small part for Marilyn, rowing a
boat.

2 DANGEROUS YEARS

20th Century-Fox, 1948. Produced by Sol M. Wurtzel; di-
rected by Arthur Pierson. Cast: William Halop, Ann E.
Todd, Jerome Cowan. Marilyn has a bit part as Eve, a
waitress in a bar.

3 LADIES OF THE CHORUS

Columbia, 1948. Produced by Harry A. Romm; directed
by Phil Karlson. Cast: Adele Jergens, Rand Brooks. Mari-
lyn plays Peggy Martin, a burlesque queen.

4 LOVE HAPPY

United Artists Release of a Mary Pickford Presentation,
1950. Produced by Lester Cowan; directed by David Mil-
ler. Cast: Harpo, Chico, and Groucho Marx, Ilona Massey,
Vera-EUen. Marilyn is a sexy walk-on seeking the help of
detective Grunion (Groucho Marx).

5 A TICKET TO TOMAHAWK

20th Century- Fox, 1950. Produced by Robert Bassler;
directed by Richard Sale. Cast: Dan Dailey, Anne Bax-
ter, Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan. Marilyn Monroe
plays a chorus girl named Clara.

6 THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

Metro-Goldw3Ti-Mayer, 1950. Produced by Arthur
Hornblow, Jr.; directed by John Huston. Cast: Ster-
ling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe,
James Whitmore. Marilyn plays Angela Phinlay, the
mistress ("niece") of a lawyer involved in a jewel rob-
bery.

7 ALL ABOUT EVE

20th Century-Fox, 1950. Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck; di-
rected by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Cast: Bette Davis, Anne
Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill. Mari-
lyn plays Miss Caswell, an aspiring actress.

8 THE FIREBALL

20th Century-Fox Release of a Thor Production, 1950.
Produced by Bert Friedlob; directed by Tay Garnett. Cast:
Mickey Rooney, Pat O'Brien, Beverly Tyler. Marilyn is
Polly, one of many enticing young roller-skating groupies.

9 RIGHT CROSS

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950. Produced by Armand
Deutsch; directed by John Sturges. Cast: June Allyson,
Dick Powell, Ricardo Montalban, Lionel Barrymore. Mari-
lyn plays Dick Powell's girlfriend.

10 HOMETOWN STORY

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951. Produced, directed and
wirtten by Arthur Pierson. Cast: Jeffrey Lynn, Donald
Crisp, Marjorie Reynolds, Alan Hale Jr. Marilyn is Miss
Martin, a secretary.

1 1 AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL

20th Century-Fox, 1951. Produced by Lamar Trotti; direc-
ted by Harmon Jones. Cast: Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter,
David Wa5rne, Jean Peters. Marilyn plays a secretary again
in this story: Harriet.

12 LOVE NEST

20th Century-Fox, 1951. Produced by Jules Buck; directed
by Joseph Newman. Cast: June Haver, William Lundigan,
Frank Fay, Jack Paar. Marilyn plays Roberta Stevens, an
ex-WAC.

13 LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL

20th Century-Fox, 1951. Produced by Robert Bassler; di-
rected by Richard Sale. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Macdo-
nald Carey, Zachary Scott. Marilyn Monroe is Joyce, the
gold-digging "other woman."

14 CLASH BY NIGHT

RKO Radio Release of a Jerry Wald-Norman Krasna Pro-
duction, 1952. Produced by Harriet Parsons; directed by
Fritz Lang. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert
Ryan. Marilyn plays a fish cannery worker named Peggy.

15 WE'RE NOT MARRIED

20th Century-Fox, 1952. Produced by Nunnally Johnson;
directed by Edmund Goulding. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Fred
Allen, Victor Moore, David Wayne, Eve Arden, Paul Dou-
glas, Eddie Bracken, Mitzi Gaynor, Louis Calhern, Zsa
Zsa Gabor. Marilyn is a beauty queen contestant named
Annabel Norris.

16 DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK

20th Century-Fox, 1952. Produced by Julian Blau-
stein; directed by Roy Baker. Cast: Richard Widmark,
Anne

Bancroft, Donna Corcoran. Marilyn plays Nell, a psycho-
tic woman working as a baby-sitter.

17 MONKEY BUSINESS

20th Century-Fox, 1952. Produced by Sol C. Siegel; direc-
ted by Howard Hawks. Cast: Caiy Grant, Ginger Rogers,
Charles Coburn. Marilyn repeats her role as a dumb
blonde secretary, Lois Laurel.

18 O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE

20th Centuiy-Fox, 1952. Produced by Andre Hakim; di-
rected by Henry Koster. Cast: Charles Laughton, David
Wayne, and many more. Marilyn plays a streetwalker.

19 NIAGARA

20th Century- Fox, 1953. Produced by Charles Brackett;
directed by Henry Hathaway. Cast: Joseph Gotten, Jean
Peters, Casey Adams. Marilyn as an adulterous, murde-
rous wife named Rose Loomis.

20 GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

20th Century-Fox, 1953. Produced by Sol C. Siegel; direc-
ted by Howard Hawks. Cast: Jane Russell, Charles Co-
bum, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan. Marilyn is Lorelei Lee
in this musical comedy.

21 HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE

20th Century-Fox, 1953. Produced by Nunnally John-
son; directed by Jean Negulesco. Cast: Betty Grable,
Lauren Bacall, William Powell, David Wayne, Rory Cal-
houn, Cameron Mitchell. Marilyn is a nearsighted gold
digger named Pola Debevoise.

22 RIVER OF NO RETURN

20th Century-Fox, 1954. Produced by Stanley Rubin;
directed by Otto Preminger. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Rory
Calhoun, Tommy Rettig. Marilyn plays a hardened sa-
loon singer.

23 THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS 20th
Century-Fox, 1954. Produced by Sol C. Siegel; directed by
Walter Lang. Cast: Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Dan
Dailey, Johnnie Ray, Mitzi Gaynor. Marilyn Monroe plays
Vicky, a nightclub singer.

24 THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH

20th Century-Fox, 1955. Produced by Charles K. Feldman
and Billy Wilder; directed by Billy Wilder. Cast: Tom Ewell,
Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts. Marilyn Monroe is a gorgeous
blonde in the upstairs apartment.

25 BUS STOP

20th Century-Fox, 1956. Produced by Buddy Adler; direc-
ted by Joshua Logan. Cast: Don Murray, Arthur
O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart. Marilyn is Cherie,
an abducted, would-be chanteuse.

26 THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL

A Warner Brothers Presentation of a Film by Marilyn Mon-
roe Productions, Inc. and L. O. P. Ltd., 1957. Produced
and directed by Laurence Olivier. Cast: Laurence Olivier,
Sybil Thorndike. Marilyn is Elsie Marina, the showgirl.

27 SOME LIKE IT HOT

United Artists Release. A Mirisch Company Presentation of
an Ashton Picture, 1959. Produced and directed by Billy
Wilder. Cast: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Pat
O'Brien, Joe E. Brown. Marilyn plays Sugar Kane, an al-
coholic singer in an all-girl band.

28 LET'S MAKE LOVE

20th Century-Fox, 1960. Produced by Jerry Wald; direc-
ted by George Cukor. Cast: Yves Montand, Tony Randall,
Frankie Vaughan, Wilfrid Hyde White. Marilyn is the
Broadway actress Amanda Dell.

29 THE MISFITS

United Artists Release. A Seven Arts Productions
Presentation of a John Huston Production, 1961. Produ-
ced by Frank E. Taylor; directed by John Huston. Cast:
Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Rit-
ter. Marilyn plays Roslyn Tabor, an ex-nightclub singer.

30 SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE

20th Century- Fox, 1962. Produced by Henry Wein-
stein; directed by George Cukor. Cast: Dean Martin,
Cyd Charisse, Phil Silvers, Wally Cox. Unfinished.

Selected Bibliography

Arnold, Eve. Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1987.

Bernard of Hollywood. Requiem for Marilyn.
Buckinghamshire: Kensal Press, 1986.
Conway, Michael, and Mark Ricci. The Films of Marilyn Monroe.
With a Tribute by Lee Strasberg and an Introductory Essay by Mark
Harris. New York: Citadel Press, 1964.
Crown, Lawrence. Marilyn at Twentieth Century-Fox. Lon-
don: Planet Books, 1987.

de Dienes, Andre. Marilyn Mon Amour. Munchen: Schirmer/ Mosel,
1986.

Fahey, David, and Linda Rich. Masters of Starlight. Photogra-
phers in Hollywood. Los Angeles: Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, 1987.

Halsmann: Portraits (Selected and edited by Yvonne Halsman).
New York: McGraw-Hill Company, 1983.

Mailer, Norman. Marilyn. New York: Grosset Ss Dunlap, 1973. Mil-
ler, Arthur. Timebends. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1987. Mon-
roe, Marilyn. My Story. London: W. A. Allen, 1975. Riese, Randall,
and Neal Hitchens. The Unabridged Marilyn:
Her Life from A to Z. New York/Chicago: Congdon & Weed,
1987.

Shevey, Sandra. The Marilyn Scandal. Her True Life Revealed by
Those Who Knew Her New York: William Morrow, 1987. Spada,
James, and George Zeno. Monroe. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Stern, Bert. Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting. Mun-
chen: Schirmer/Mosel, 1982.

Summers, Anthony. Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Mon-
roe. London: Victor GoUancz Ltd., 1985.

Photography Credits

© 1989 by Archives Alive Ltd.: 140/141, 143. Photos by Ed Feingersh; © by Richard Avedon
Inc.: 189. All rights reserved; © 1989 by Bruno Bernard: 32, 35, 82, 94, 100/101, 136, 137,
139. By kind permission of Susan Bernard; © 1989 by Bettmann U PI/Bettmann Archive: 75,
112, 113, 114/115, 116, 117, 138, 145, 150/151, 153, 162, 163, 175, 182/183, 193, 216,
224, 234/235; © 1989 by Leo Caloia: 28; © 1989 by Christophe L.: 69; © 1989 by Culver Pic-
tures: 66, 67, 118; © 1959 by Henri Dauman: 197. All rights reserved; © 1989 by Andre de
Dienes: 26, 27, 29, 50, 51, 53, 93. By kind permission of Shirley de Dienes; © 1989 by dpa:
103; © 1989 by Publications Filipacchi: 147, 148/149, 164/165, 221; © 1989 by John Florea:
102, 104/105, 121; © 1989 by FPG/Pictor: 155; © 1989 by Gamma-Liaison/ Studio X: 133,
158, 181; © 1989 by Globe Photos Inc.: 218/219, 225; © 1989 by the Estate of Ernst Haas:
212/213, 215; © 1989 by Yvonne Halsman: 55, 83, 84/85, 190, 191. Photos by Philippe Hals-
man; © 1989 by The Hulton Picture Company: 171; © 1989 by Interpress: 64, 107; © 1989
by Keystone: 172/173; © 1989 by Tom Kelley,Jr.: 49; © 1989 by Kobal Collection: 37, 38, 39,
41, 42, 43, 57, 58, 61, 63, 65, 68, 73, 74, 77, 79, 96, 97, 99, 106, 108/109, 111, 120, 125,
126, 127, 128/129, 144, 154, 159, 160/161, 176/177, 180, 185, 186/187, 195, 200,
206/207, 223; © 1989 by Magnum/Focus: 80, 81, 86, 89, 134, 135, 205, 208, 209, 211; ©
1989 by Motion Picture and Television Photo Archive: 31, 194. Photos by Richard C. Miller;
© 1989 by Photoselection: 157; © 1986 by Playboy: 46, 47. Photographs by Earl Moran re-
produced by special permission of sPlayboy. magazine; © 1989 by Schirmer/Mosel: 131; ©
1989 by Sipa: 220; © 1989 by Sotheby's London: 169, 170. Photographs by Cecil Beaton; ©
1989 by Bert Stern: 227, 228/229, 231, 232/233; © 1989 by Stills: 98, 119, 201; © 1989 by
Siiddeutscher Verlag: 167, 178/179; © 1989 by Sunset Boulevard: 71, 217; © 1989 by «Life«
magazine,Time Inc.: 45, 59, 87, 152; © 1989 by Transglobe: 25, 122/123; © 1960 by Bob
Willoughby: 90, 91, 203.

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